Impact Factor
by Irasst
Summary: Angela and Fareeha are attracted to each other, but in different ways. When Ana returns to Overwatch, she gets tired of watching the two tiptoe around each other and decides to do something about it. Part 4 of The Air-Speed Velocity of a Laden Egyptian Falcon.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This story will reference earlier stories in the series. In particular, the ending of this chapter makes less sense if you haven't read "A Mother's Diary".**

* * *

Angela couldn't breathe when she was physically torn from the scientific article she was reading and hoisted high into the air.

" _Angela_ _, it is so good to see you again_!" exclaimed Reinhardt in German.

" _Same. Here._ " Angela replied in German, tapping Reinhardt's wrist until he understood that she needed space to let her diaphragm expand.

 _Panthera leo_ , _l_ _ion_ , thought Angela as she gulped down air. Through the corner of her eye, she saw a couple more people enter the common room. Unlike Reinhardt, she didn't recognize the newcomers.

 _Family: Leporidae, rabbit_ , thought Angela. Upon hearing said rabbit speak on her phone, she added, _Lepus coreanus, Korean hare_. She glanced at the short man asking the Korean hare for an autograph. _Order: Anura, frog. Hmmmm. Maybe…_ _Agalychnis callidryas, red-eyed tree frog?_

Recently Angela had gotten into memorizing scientific names for plants and animals just for the fun of it. Many people assumed that Angela was the kind of genius that just remembered everything. But Angela's memory worked the same as the majority of people's. It made connections through associating new information with old, and strengthened it through repetition. She was just more conscious of how it worked. To learn the Latin and Greek used in the scientific nomenclature, Angela was practicing by associating people with animal-like qualities she chose, and reciting the appropriate name.

She let her attention go back to the so-called lion in front of her.

" _I didn't expect to see you here Reinhardt. Don't you think it's time to hang it up? You aren't getting any younger._ "

Reinhardt frowned. " _Never!_ " he said, raising his right arm in the air and banging his left fist over his chest. " _I will fight to my last breath._ "

Angela sighed and shook her head. Reinhardt flinched, but avoided the lecturing that was coming his way as more people entered the common room for the first informal gathering of Overwatch since the recall.

 _Gorilla gorilla_ , _how imaginative_ , she thought as her old friend entered the room.

"Winston!" Angela cried, and threw her arms around the scientist's shoulders. "How are you? Are you experiencing any problems with your genetic therapy?"

Winston chuckled. "Aside from a devastating addiction to peanut butter?"

Angela closed her eyes as she laughed, so she didn't see the person standing behind the gorilla until Winston stepped aside to introduce them formally.

"Angela, do you remember Fareeha Amari? I personally invited her to join Overwatch."

The doctor smiled politely at the woman standing in front of her. She was about four inches taller than Angela, and unlike the other casually-dressed people in the room, she was wearing a blue mech suit.

 _Falco peregrinus, peregrine falcon_ , her brain went, without hesitation.

"Fareeha, it is a pleasure to see you again. I am sorry about what happened to Ana. I tried to contact you via hologram, but you were hospitalized…"

"You do not need to apologize, Doctor Ziegler", interrupted Fareeha with a slight tip of her head. "I am doing well, and I keep my mother close with this." She gestured to a tattoo Angela hadn't seen before under Fareeha's right eye. She recognized it as something Ana had traced on her face when she was a teenager.

"The Eye of Horus. I am sure Ana would be honoured. Your mother always hoped you'd follow in her footsteps."

Fareeha's nose flared and she gave a short bark of laughter. "She did? Funny she never mentioned that to me." She turned to Winston. "I apologize for getting here so late. My flight was stuck in Spain, so I flew the rest of the way myself", she said patting herself on the shoulder.

"No problem. I'll show you to the room you'll be staying in. There aren't many rooms available, so you'll have to share…" Winston's voice trailed off as the two walked away, and Angela was distracted by the gunslinger coming in from the other entrance.

 _Canis lupus familiaris_ , _domestic dog_ , thought Angela. She chatted avidly with Jesse McCree, catching up like siblings that had been separated for a long time. Fareeha Amari slipped from Angela's mind.

* * *

It wasn't long before the newly-formed Overwatch had a new mission. The return of Overwatch was still deemed illegal, so they advertised themselves as a mercenary company.

Fareeha had brought warning about Anubis, a God Program that had broken free of its containment by Overwatch decades earlier. The group was sombre upon hearing the information, who had already known of the worsening state of the world and the oncoming Second Omnic Crisis. It was good that other organizations like Helix Security International were doing their best to contain emergencies like Anubis, but it was really Overwatch's responsibility to handle these situations, even if Overwatch had been outlawed.

There had been another God Program outbreak in Nepal, where previously peaceful omnics were going haywire. The outbreak had been sudden, and all available members of the small Overwatch team flew to Nepal immediately with little information.

Fareeha was already in her armour by the time Angela entered the hangar to change into her Valkyrie suit. She was talking to Winston. Angela could hear snippets of their conversation as she pulled the plates of her armour over the black, heat-repelling flight suit she already had on.

"… need intelligence… anti-air units… no defence…"

Angela didn't feel like it concerned her, and like everyone else, she didn't know what the Nepalese omnics had in store for them, so she stopped listening. She straightened the halo-shaped helmet on her head, and checked the energy level of her healing staff. She tested its balance by giving it a little twirl and tossed it in the air, satisfied when it landed perfectly in her palm. She strapped her pistol to her hip and was ready.

"So!" said Reinhardt in a voice that was too loud to ignore. Everyone on the hangar briefly turned their heads in Fareeha's direction. "What should we call you?"

"Excuse me?" said Fareeha.

"You need a call sign! Everybody needs a call sign!"

Fareeha chuckled and patted Reinhardt on the hand he held on her shoulder. "Isn't yours just your first name?" she asked.

"Yes, but Reinhardt is a magnificent name that deserves to be heard by friend and foe alike!"

Fareeha smiled. "For now, just call me Oscar Whiskey…" she counted the small number of people preparing for their mission. "Oscar Whiskey 17." Over the radio, the team referred to themselves as Oscar Whiskey, the NATO phonetic alphabet for OW, or Overwatch.

"How boring", said Jesse. "You used to have a better imagination", he said wryly, patting his hand on Fareeha's helmet.

Jesse's good humour didn't last very long.

"It's too quiet", muttered Jesse as the small unit walked through the village.

Nobody replied, but everybody agreed. It was the middle of the day, and where there should have been streets bustling with activity, there was nothing but silence. Nearby Angela heard the sound of a shutter slamming against the side of a building due to a strong gust of wind. Angela knew the village was still in mourning of losing Tekhartha Mondatta, who had been assassinated by Talon. But surely the people wouldn't just abandon their village after it happened.

Angela closed her eyes at the painful memory of hearing who had pulled the trigger at the omnic that preached for peace. Lena had described her encounter with Widowmaker – a woman once known and held dear to the Overwatch organization as Amélie Lacroix. Angela remembered when Amélie moved in. She didn't work for Overwatch, but she stayed with her husband Gérard. Angela had thought that the younger woman was sweet, and she had served as a reminder of normalcy and stability, promising everyone that they could have a normal life too. For that reason, it shook everybody up when Amélie killed her husband.

The unit was heading to the sanctum. That's where the few reports they had suggested the danger would lie.

Suddenly, through the silence, Angela heard the chattering of a robotic voice in a language she couldn't understand. Her body tensed, and that was when she knew the fighting would begin.

A loud explosion to her right confirmed her intuition.

Smoke and dust filled the air, and Angela hid behind a building trying to find her breath. She had expected screaming, but there weren't any humans left to scream. Bullets ricocheted off walls above her head, and Angela hugged the ground. Winston was largely recognized as being in charge since he had called everyone together, but he didn't have any experience coming up with strategy on the fly. For that reason and because there hadn't been time to train formally, the small group of Overwatch members scattered like cockroaches, finding cover for themselves and awaiting instruction.

Through the sound of the omnics' gunfire, Angela heard the sound of rocket thrusters, as Fareeha took to the sky.

"Oscar Whiskey 17 to Oscar Whiskey All", came Fareeha's voice into the radio earpiece fitted to Angela. "I have clear sight of the situation. The enemy is pouring out of the sanctum. We are outnumbered twenty to one."

At first nobody spoke as Fareeha confirmed their worst suspicions. Finally, a thick Russian accent responded. "Zarya copies. Zarya to Winston, what is the best course of action?"

Angela could hear the uncertainty in Winston's voice. "Winston copies… Um…"

"This is Oscar Whiskey 17", interrupted Fareeha. "I will eliminate the bulk of them at the entrance before they start splitting up. Organize yourselves into four groups of four and pick off any enemies that remain."

Ex-soldiers and old Overwatch members were the first to respond with "roger", and immediately grouped up. Angela flew to Lúcio, who had been shot in the arm in his attempt to reconvene. Without asking for permission, Angela stuck her fingers into the wound and yanked out the bullet. She held tight to Lúcio's wrist with surprising strength as he gasped and instinctively tried to pull away. She positioned her staff over the wound, and pulled a trigger, administering a small dose of nanobots that quickly sewed together the flesh.

"This is Oscar Whiskey 17. I have the enemy on my radar. Rocket barrage incoming!"

The earth shook with the heavy impact of missiles hitting the ground. Angela lay low on the ground, waiting for it to stop, and hoped that nobody would get hit by any shrapnel.

Angela waited for an update, but she didn't get one. As the air cleared, she looked to the sky, and saw Fareeha flying erratically.

"Mercy to Oscar Whiskey 17, do you have a problem?"

"They have anti-air units on the ground!" was all Fareeha could say before Angela watched a rocket hit Fareeha squarely in the back.

"Press forward while they're distracted!" yelled Aleksandra over the radio, but Angela had already spread her wings.

Her Valkyrie suit had no problem catching up to Fareeha just as her jets sputtered its last breaths.

"Are you alright?" shouted Angela as she caught Fareeha under the armpits and let her suit's momentum pull them upwards.

Fareeha's face was frozen and her lower lip trembled.

Angela had to strain to hear Fareeha over the sound of gunfire.

"… no wounds… never been shot out of the sky before… certain death."

Angela's Valkyrie suit was attracted to humans and omnics, and wasn't capable of true flight. But that didn't mean that she didn't have any tricks up her sleeve.

She wrapped her legs around Fareeha's body, pulled out a vial of blood from her belt, and tossed it into the air. Her Valkyrie suit responded, and jerked the two upwards before they began falling again. Angela caught the vial, and repeated the action.

"Stop flailing! I'm trying to concentrate!" yelled Angela, but Fareeha wouldn't calm down.

"… Raptora systems failing… nobody survives a fall…"

Angela felt Fareeha slip from the circle of her legs a little, and had to let the vial fall to readjust her hold on the panicking woman. She withdrew a back-up vial of blood.

"Mercy to Pharah, I need you to calm down!" Angela said through the radio this time so her voice would be loud and clear. Angela wasn't sure what did it, but Fareeha stopped struggling, and with a sigh of relief, Angela kept tossing the vial into the air. Their decent was jerky, but Fareeha's feet eventually touched the roof of a house.

Fareeha's legs collapsed under her, and Angela fell on top of the taller woman.

"Can you still fight?" asked Angela, trying to detangle her limbs from Fareeha's.

Fareeha nodded dumbly and held up her rocket launcher with a trembling hand. Angela froze when Fareeha touched Angela's bangs with her free hand.

"Pharah… You remembered…" Fareeha mumbled.

"Of course I remembered", said Angela smugly. "I'm a genius."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Angela and Jesse are bros. Everyone is gay. I don't know how it happened, it just did.**

* * *

Angela was frustrated. She had been in her lab for ten hours straight trying to understand the consistent results from the many Western blots she had repeated. It couldn't have been a fluke, given how she got the same results every time. Was the literature wrong? Did she make a mistake when she designed the experiment? Were her samples contaminated? Was this one of those seemingly insignificant mistakes that would turn out to cause a paradigm shift in medicine? The last possibility was highly improbable, but Angela could hope.

She had already discussed her findings with Winston and MeiLing, but they didn't have much advice to offer. And then MeiLing had the gall to ask Angela about her climatology data. Angela helped MeiLing solve her problem, and she watched jealously as MeiLing left the lab with Aleksandra for a night out.

Angela's desk was scattered with scientific articles that she had printed out. People like MeiLing preferred reading from the massive monitor of her computer, and it saved on paper, but Angela liked having physical copies. To the untrained eye, it would look like Angela was messy, but Angela knew exactly where everything was, and it was faster for her to find the paper she needed by letting her hand pick the right article through muscle memory.

That was where Jesse found Angela. "Hey there, _Angela_." He laughed as Angela stiffened at the way he deliberately mispronounced her name to exasperate her.

"The "g" in Angela is hard one! Damn Americans can't give German-speakers any respect. And don't get me started on the "A" sound…"

"Now there, doc. I came to tell you that you need a break. You never leave this lab, and half of the team don't know who you are."

"Jesse, I'm not here to socialize, I'm here to help end the Second Omnic Crisis. And do my research while I'm at it."

"Fine. Then let's make this about me instead of you. I got me a date with the scrumptious older Shimada brother, and we're heading to a gay bar. You should come with. When was the last time you got laid?"

Angela ignored Jesse's question. She never gave herself time to pursue romantic relationships, but her body had needs too. Sometimes she would go to a bar and pick up someone warm and passionate for the night, and never see them again. Then again, it _had_ been a while since she found comfort, and Angela's frustration at her lack of progress in her work demanded a distraction.

"Dating a co-worker is a bad idea, Jesse. It's not professional. Plus, if it doesn't work out, it could strain relationships, make our team less cohesive in battle…"

"You're too uptight, little missy", laughed Jesse. "That's it. You're definitely coming with us. Doctor's orders", he said with a wink.

"I don't see a "MD" or "PhD" on _your_ business card", grumbled Angela as Jesse pulled her to her feet.

As Angela, Jesse, and Hanzo walked to the gay bar, Jesse sheepishly rubbed the back of his head at the way Hanzo glared at him for making him wait so long. Angela didn't put on that much make-up, but it wasn't something she did that often, so she had been incredibly slow.

 _If Jesse's a dog, Hanzo's a wolf, Canis lupus_ , thought Angela.

It was as if Hanzo could tell what Angela was thinking when he dropped his scowl to address Angela directly.

"You look lovely", said Hanzo politely.

Angela believed him.

Ever since she had started her regular injections of nanobots, she hadn't aged a day, and there wasn't a wrinkle on her face. Her smoky eye shadow made the blue of her eyes pop out, and her lip-gloss made her look positively kissable. She didn't care to change her hair style, leaving it in a ponytail. She chose one of the few dresses she had, which she owned precisely for the hunt she was going on tonight. It was a black, thin-strapped dress with a skirt that showed off ample amounts of strong, toned leg emphasized by high heels.

"Thank you", replied Angela. "You look strapping yourself. I can't see why you'd choose this _cowboy_ …"

"I ain't no cowboy", interrupted Jesse. "Gunslinger. Bounty hunter. Badass motherfucker. Jesse McCree is many things, but a cowboy he ain't."

"He interests me", said Hanzo with a face so serious, Angela forgot he said something positive, and she felt bad for teasing Jesse. "Maybe we should have brought my brother. He seems to have taken a liking to you, Angela."

"Ya hear that, Angela? You have a secret admirer!" Jesse made kissing noises at Angela.

"Well if Genji wants to impress me, he should learn how to pronounce my name correctly first", said a nonchalant Angela.

"Well if you don't want an English pronunciation of your name, why do you call yourself Mercy?" retorted Jesse.

"Mercy is much faster to say than Barmherzigkeit. Plus, my parents gave me my name, and I will honour their decision by saying it the way they intended."

The bar was large, and crowded. There were many people for Angela to choose from, so she decided to take her time. She went up to the bar alone, and ordered a glass of red wine. She took a sip and surveyed her options.

Angela had a type, but it wasn't a hard type to find. Regardless of sex or gender, she liked seeing hard muscle, with a body so low in fat percentage that the muscle would be outlined clearly. While her partner slept after intercourse, she would slip from bed and start dressing, while naming each and every muscle she could see. There were many such bodies in her line of work, but she wouldn't let herself be attracted to anybody she knew. As she had said to Jesse earlier, it was a bad idea. It wasn't a warning that came from personal experience though. She had never tried it.

At the end of the bar, Angela spied a body that was exactly her type. The woman she was staring at was tall and wearing a simple, blue dress that was sleeveless and had a light skirt that ended at the calf. Angela's eyes roamed hungrily over the woman's arms, her lean waist, and the way her broad shoulders strained against the fabric of her dress. The woman's back was facing Angela, so she couldn't tell if she had a good face, but Angela figured that if she had enough alcohol, it wouldn't matter.

Angela downed the rest of her wine, and asked for another glass.

"And one more thing" she said to the bartender. "Give the lovely lady over there another round of whatever she's drinking. On me, of course."

The bartender nodded and tapped the woman on the shoulder as he handed her another beer. He gestured in Angela's direction. Angela watched eagerly as the woman turned around, only to feel her mouth go dry instantly.

"Mein Gott", mumbled Angela, whose hand flew up to cover the top part of her face. "That's Fareeha", she groaned.

Before Angela could decide what to do, Fareeha had pushed her way through the crowd to stand at Angela's feet.

"So, um. The bartender said this was from you", she said, holding her beer in the air. "Thank you."

"I'm sorry", said Angela. "I didn't know it was you. I've never seen you without your suit, and…" _wow_ , finished the impulsive part of Angela's brain. "…and I thought you were someone else."

"Oh", said Fareeha, who looked at her feet.

"I like your dress", said Angela, and she wasn't lying. It had a conservative cut that didn't show enough of what she wanted to see, but it still framed Fareeha's body nicely. In particular, Fareeha's breasts were larger than she had expected… Angela cleared her throat and moved her eyes back to Fareeha's face. Thankfully the younger woman was still looking at her feet and hadn't noticed what Angela had been staring at.

"Thank you Angela. Your dress is nice too. It's kind of refreshing to see you without a lab coat on."

"But I never wear a lab coat outside of the lab."

Fareeha laughed. It was higher pitched than Angela would have expected from a woman of Fareeha's musculature, and although Angela preferred deeper voices, it wasn't an unpleasant sound.

"You never leave the lab. It's something that hasn't changed since I was a kid."

Angela's eyes went wide, and her head started throbbing.

 _That's right_ , Angela thought. _Fareeha's a co-worker. And I've known her since she was a child_. Without wanting to, Angela saw Fareeha's twelve-year-old face in place of her real one. It had the same hair and hair ornaments, but the eyes were larger and rounder, the cheeks full of baby fat. Angela's feelings of lust were trampled to the ground.

"So, why are you here?" asked Fareeha. "Aleks and Mei said it would be fun to let loose once in a while, but I haven't been having much fun. Bars aren't my style. It's too crowded and people keep _touching_ me."

"I'm sorry to hear that", said Angela who lightly touched her fingertips to Fareeha's forearm. She immediately pulled back, face turning red, and feeling mightily ashamed for doing exactly what Fareeha had just complained about. "Jesse and Hanzo brought me", she managed to squeak.

"Are you alright, Angela?" asked Fareeha, a concerned look over her face. "You're flushed. Have you had too much to drink?"

"No, no, I can handle my alcohol quite well", she said, hastily bringing said liquid back to her lips to take a satisfying gulp.

"Are you sick then?" she asked, placing a large hand over Angela's forehead. Angela felt her face grow even hotter.

"No, I don't get sick…" Angela whispered, but the bar was too loud for Fareeha to hear her.

"Does it hurt? Hold on." Fareeha reached into her shoulder bag and pulled out a bag of gummy bears. "Do you want some? I always carry them on me."

Angela couldn't help but laugh.

"Oh! Do you prefer chocolate? I do too, but it's inconvenient if it melts."

Before Angela could respond, a large, attractive woman wearing a vest and dress pants leaned in and said, "Excuse me. Did it hurt?"

Angela rolled her eyes at the pick-up line she had heard more times than she had cared to.

"What?" said Fareeha.

Angela was surprised when the woman basically shoved Angela out of the way to stand in Fareeha's personal space. Angela had thought the attention was hers.

"When you fell from heaven. Did it hurt?"

"Is heaven a city?" Fareeha took in the woman's uncertain face. "Oh, if you mean the sky, I actually did fall from the heavens. But it didn't hurt because Angela saved me", she said, smiling at Angela. Angela felt her heart flutter.

The woman glared at Angela. "Are you together?" she asked Fareeha.

"Oh, no, we're co-workers."

"Then how about we ditch her, and find somewhere where we could _talk_ where it's more quiet." The woman wrapped her hand around Fareeha's left biceps and gave it a little squeeze. The look of discomfort on Fareeha's face spurred Angela into action.

"Oh, she really doesn't have the time", said Angela who grasped Fareeha's hand and pulled. "We have an early start tomorrow, so we can't be out too late."

Angela signalled to the bartender that she was ready to pay. While Fareeha's attention was directed at the cash register, Angela looked over her shoulder to see the woman's icy stare. She poked her tongue out at her, glad that she looked much younger than she actually was, and paid the bills for both her and Fareeha.

Angela found it easier to breathe when she pulled Fareeha out of the bar and she savoured the crisp night air.

"I think you're mistaken", said Fareeha.

"What do you mean?"

"We don't have an early start tomorrow. Did you know that formation training is scheduled for the afternoon?"

"Is _that_ how you thank me for helping you shake off that annoying woman?"

"Oh. You lied. You shouldn't do that. Um. But thank you, she was making me uncomfortable."

"You're welcome", said Angela with a squeeze of her hand. It then dawned on her that Fareeha's palm was still nestled in hers. "Does this make you uncomfortable?" she asked, holding up their hands.

"Not at all. I feel safe when I'm around you." Angela felt heat creep up her neck until Fareeha continued. "You did save my life, after all."

Angela sighed and let go of Fareeha's hand, all too aware that she wasn't going to get rid of her sexual tension that night. She desperately tried to think of a way to distract herself from the way Fareeha's calf muscles flexed and stretched with each step back to the base, and the way she carried herself with such confidence.

Thankfully, Fareeha seemed to know exactly what to say.

"Do you still want a gummy bear?"

* * *

 **A/N: Yes, I threw shade at the way Genji pronounces Angela's name in his voice line when Mercy gets damaged.  
**


	3. Chapter 3

Normally Angela would have been reading a scientific article while she waited for the tardier members of Overwatch to arrive at the meeting. But instead, she found her eyes gravitating towards a certain dark-skinned woman sitting across the table from her.

Although Fareeha was dressed conservatively, Angela couldn't help but remember what was no doubt, the rare sight of the soldier in a dress. Angela tried to hide her face behind her stack of paper, but she sneaked peeks at what she could see above the table. Occasionally, she made eye-contact with Fareeha, and they both snapped their gazes elsewhere. But just because she couldn't see Fareeha didn't mean Angela wasn't overly-aware of her presence. Even though there were other people sitting closer to her, Angela could only smell Fareeha's distinct scent. It was a mix between shampoo, Raptora fuel, and something else that Angela couldn't quite put her finger on, but was oddly comforting.

Angela had expected the meeting to be about the usual, boring logistics, but her attention was torn from the pleasant wafts of Fareeha's fragrance when the image of a building exploding was projected over the table.

"Rice Incorporated is no more", said Winston gravely. "This week, their main manufacturing plant was bombed in a terrorist attack. Members of the executive board have been assassinated and a message was left saying that any replacements will receive the same fate. Nobody has taken credit for the attack, but rumour has it that an organization called Talon is behind it."

Angela held her breath. Widowmaker was part of Talon.

"Why Rice Inc.?" asked Fareeha.

"I don't know", said Winston. "I don't know what Talon wants, but Lena and I recently stopped them from stealing a Doomfist gauntlet. There's no doubt that they have something against Overwatch, so we have to be careful. I know we're here to end the Second Omnic Crisis, but it looks like we're going to have a lot of enemies on the side."

"Rice had a monopoly on nanobot development and manufacturing", said Angela. "If there's a full-on war between humans and omnics, humans won't be able to recover from injuries as fast as they're normally able to."

"Does this affect us?" asked Jesse.

"Yes", said Angela, her mouth setting into a grim line. "Rice is where we ordered our nanobots from. The few other nanobot companies are too small to fill the global orders Rice were in charge of. It's likely that we're going to be put on a waitlist for months, maybe even years for our next supply of nanobots. If Overwatch still had weight to its name, we could bump ourselves up, but…"

"Overwatch is still illegal", finished Winston. "Not to mention that the price of nanobots is probably going to skyrocket."

Angela nodded. "We still have a lot of nanobots in stock, but from now on, we can only use them for emergencies in the field. For everything else, we have to use old-fashioned methods of treatment."

"I'm sorry, Angela", said Winston. "I know you wanted to do your research, but we don't have the means to hire any other doctors."

"That's fine", said Angela, resisting the urge to sigh. "I'm still well-practiced and it was too easy relying on nanobots for everything anyway."

"I can offer spiritual healing", said Zenyatta, an omnic that had joined their ranks after their mission in Nepal. His first name was Tekhartha, but he preferred to be addressed by his last name.

"Oi, what's with all the glum faces?" said Lena. "We have so much to be excited for! Think of it as a challenge! And you know what else is great? Fareeha is in charge of cooking tonight."

There was a general murmur of approval and Angela smiled at the way Fareeha grinned sheepishly.

"Thank goodness", exclaimed Hana. "I had nightmares after what Torb made yesterday."

"I didn't make it", said Torbjörn. "It's something I ordered from Sweden with my own hard-earned money. It was a treat."

"Did you, now? I was pretty sure it was whale boogers that you pulled out of the sewers", said Hana.

"For the last time, it's called surströmming, and it was delicious. We just didn't have the right type of bread. The next time…" said Torbjörn.

"There isn't going to be a next time!" yelled just about everybody in the room.

* * *

It wasn't long before _it_ started.

Angela had moved her office from the laboratory to the infirmary. It used to be that if people injured themselves during training, Angela would give them a quick dose of nanobots that she kept in her desk drawer. Now she had to stay in the infirmary in case she had to wrap up an injury or tape up a sprain. She had spent a good part of her time in the past isolated in labs, but recently she had gotten accustomed to the company of Winston and MeiLing. She had become lonely after the first day of being in the infirmary, but the feeling didn't last long.

Angela's first patient was Fareeha. Apparently she had gotten into a bare-knuckled brawl with Reinhardt. Although there wasn't a single scratch on Fareeha (Angela assumed she was too fast for the old lion to land a solid blow), Fareeha had torn up the skin on her knuckles.

"Can you help me out?" said Fareeha. "I'm pretty good at bandaging things, but it's hard for me to do when it's my own hands."

Angela cut the appropriate amount of white fabric, and started wrapping it around Fareeha's hands. "You know we have fighting gloves just to prevent this from happening, right? And is Reinhardt alright?"

"Oh yes, punching him is like punching a brick wall. I guess the fight ended in a draw, but I did leave him with a few good bruises."

"Just wear gloves in the future, ok?"

"Will do, Doctor Ziegler."

"Oh, and I've been meaning to ask, what was the name of the main dish you made the other day?"

"It's called "ful medames", and it's a staple dish in Egypt that's very easy to make. It also seemed like a good choice because we don't get much fresh food."

"Well, it was delicious. I could eat it every day."

Fareeha blushed.

"Thank you, but I'm sure my mother would have done a better job."

"Oh, don't say that. Ana was a great cook, but you're not too shabby yourself. I might even like your style more. It was seasoned exactly to my tastes."

Fareeha blushed even harder, cleared her throat, and mumbled something about needing to get back to the gym.

The second time Fareeha came in for treatment, she needed to get checked because she suspected she might have gotten a concussion (she hadn't). The fifth time, her ankle had a light sprain. The tenth time, she had dislocated a shoulder in a sparring match. The twentieth time, she had "accidentally" cut herself while chopping onions. She visited Angela every other day, and not once did she have the same injury. The day after every visit, she would bring Angela snacks, always handmade, and often sweet, as a thank you for the help the day before. That way, she interrupted Angela's work each and every day.

Angela finally lost her patience on the twenty-first visit.

"Well, I suppose I'll be patching you up as usual", said Angela as Fareeha walked through the door.

Fareeha was wearing a sleeveless shirt, and Angela gasped when she saw all the small cuts on her arms.

"What happened?"

"I was climbing this very tall tree, you see, and I lost my grip on my way up. Luckily, I fell through a shorter tree with a lot of thin branches that broke my fall."

Angela washed her hands thoroughly, and pulled a bottle off a shelf.

"Fareeha, do you know what this is?"

"Looks like rubbing alcohol. My mother used to use it whenever I got hurt."

"That's right."

Angela dabbed a sterilized piece of cloth with the liquid, and pressed it to Fareeha's forearm. However, when Fareeha hissed, Angela firmly held the cloth down, until Fareeha squirmed.

"Did you know that you shouldn't actually use rubbing alcohol on open wounds? It kills bacteria, but it also kills your immune system's first responders. It slows down the recovery process. People have been using it for so long that it's become tradition."

Fareeha stared at Angela.

Angela put more rubbing alcohol on the cloth and pressed it against Fareeha's shoulder this time. Fareeha held her complaint.

"I _know_ you never fall. Now, tell me…" Angela doused the cloth in rubbing alcohol and ran it down Fareeha's entire left arm. She watched Fareeha's jaw clench. "Why are you wasting my time and our resources by injuring yourself? I swear, if you actually threw yourself off a tree for this…"

"A-A-Aleks gave me the idea. She told me that Mei thought you might want company, so I… I'm sorry." Fareeha hung her head.

"You don't have to hurt yourself just to see me! Mein Gott, you're so _stupid_ …" exclaimed Angela. Fareeha didn't flinch when Angela washed her cuts in rubbing alcohol, but she flinched in anticipation of Angela's incoming scolding. Angela saw this and sighed. "Don't do it again", she said sternly, but immediately softened her tone. "Bring a book or something, nobody's using the couch anyway. And the next time you come, bring those deep fried dough balls again. I liked it with chocolate syrup."

Fareeha put on that sheepish smile that Angela was starting to find endearing. She found herself staring at those full lips, and had to tear her eyes away.

"They're called "Luqmat al-Qadi". It translates literally to "The Judge's Bites", said Fareeha.

"I'll make sure to remember that."


	4. Chapter 4

When the word spread that Fareeha was making and bringing desserts to the infirmary, it wasn't long before Angela's office was littered with people lounging about all over the floor.

Angela didn't really mind the tea party that happened every day after she had napped, as she would have spent that time chatting away with Fareeha anyway. Now that nobody specific demanded her attention, she could finally get back to her work, and she was very good at tuning out the new distraction. But one day, she stopped typing furiously at her computer as she was writing her next paper, when she kept hearing her name.

"My money's on Angela", whispered Lena.

"Me too", came a chorus of voices.

"I also think that the doctor will win", drawled Jesse.

"What's going on?" interrupted Angela.

"We're putting down bets between you and Fareeha", said Hana. "Reinhardt said that Fareeha is much smarter than she looks, so we're challenging you two to a game of chess."

"What!" asked Fareeha, who had been so grossly absorbed in her book that she had only just noticed that everyone was talking about her.

"I haven't played in so long", said Angela. "I enjoyed it as a child, but I didn't have time for it when I got older."

"I don't know how to play it at all", said Fareeha.

"Good then!" exclaimed Reinhardt. "You're both on similar grounds! Come on Fareeha, you _have_ to prove yourself!"

"I don't mind giving it a try", shrugged Fareeha.

Angela figured that there was no use resisting, so she agreed as well.

Winston brought a small, worn chess set from the lab, and laid it on Angela's desk. He set up the pieces and explained the rules to Fareeha, who never acknowledged anything Winston said. She just stared at the board.

Lena flipped a coin, and let Angela call it. It landed on heads, giving Angela the white side.

Angela had never learned much strategy, but she remembered liking opening by advancing her pieces towards the middle of the board. Fareeha followed suite. Angela only remembered to hide her king behind her pawns because Winston had just mentioned it in his explanation to Fareeha. In that move, Fareeha took Angela's knight for free without Angela realizing it had been in danger. She determined that she had been playing half-heartedly, and decided to slow down and start thinking about her next moves.

The game slowed down to a snail's pace at that point. After two hours, Lena's leg was shaking impatiently up and down. Lúcio yawned and stretched. MeiLing had fallen asleep with her head in Aleksandra's lap. Angela was starting to get a hang of the game, and was planning her steps very far in advance, anticipating moves that Fareeha might make. She thought she was in control, until she found Fareeha's bishop checking her king. She would have to move her king out of the way, but when she did, Fareeha would be able to take Angela's queen.

Angela looked up at Fareeha in surprise. The woman was staring intensely at the board. Angela didn't think she had seen Fareeha look away even once during their whole match.

Angela wasn't one to cave into pressure, but in the several minutes that she stared at the board, calculating each possible outcome, she realized that if Fareeha played it right, there was no way Angela could win. Angela knew it was normal to forfeit in chess, but Angela didn't want to end the game that way. Plus, there was no guarantee that Fareeha could see what she saw.

At the point where Angela knew Fareeha should take her rook, Angela was surprised when Fareeha moved up a pawn. She breathed a sigh of relief. It was Fareeha's first time playing, after all. She was going to make mistakes.

"Fareeha, that's rude", Winston said before he could stop himself.

Angela looked up, and gaped when she saw that Fareeha had lost the intense look on her face. Her eyes were still glued downwards, but the corners of her mouth were pulled slightly upwards.

 _She's toying with me_ , thought Angela. Or maybe she wasn't and Fareeha really had made a mistake. There was only one way to know for sure, and that was to play it out.

No matter what Angela did, there was no way to stop Fareeha from moving the one pawn up, one space at a time, until it reached Angela's side of the board. Angela watched in dismay as the pawn replaced the queen Fareeha had sacrificed earlier, and it was only then that Angela threw up her hands in defeat.

"Is it over?" said Jesse.

When Winston nodded, Reinhardt roared and threw his hands up in celebration, waking up everybody who had fallen asleep.

"My god, he won the whole pot", muttered Lúcio.

"Nope, he splits it with me", said Torbjörn.

"Dear lord, that's a lot of surströmming", said Lúcio.

"I never doubted you, Fareeha!" said Reinhardt in the only volume he knew how to use: loud.

"You said you've never played!" exclaimed Hana in an accusatory tone.

Fareeha stood up and rolled her shoulders. "I haven't, but when you're given that much time to think, it's not so bad. That was pretty fun."

"How could this happen?" yelled Lena. "Angela's a _genius_."

"I guess people can be smart in different ways", said Fareeha with a shrug. "I definitely can't do Angela's job. And just because I won this time doesn't mean I'll win next time."

"I want a rematch", said Angela, pressing her lips together in a tight line.

"Oh not again", said Hana. "I'm not staying around this time. I have better things to do."

"You both had a rocky start, but that was exceptional for your first time", said Winston. "I could probably enter you two in competitions after a bit of practice and study."

"I don't care about that", huffed Angela. "I only want to win against Fareeha. I won't stop until I beat her."

Fareeha smiled broadly, and folded her arms over her chest. "Then I have to make sure you never beat me."

Angela wanted to tear that smile off of Fareeha's face.

* * *

It happened very rarely, but the Overwatch team was conducting a mission in a city. To be specific, they were in Hong Kong, and Angela found herself with limited movement, as the numerous tall buildings prevented her from being able to fly between her dispersed teammates.

The team was hunting down a tank that a terrorist group was driving around the city. At first it was unclear what they wanted, but then they began blowing down entire apartment complexes that housed omnics.

It had taken the team two hours for Lena to fly their jet from their base in Gibraltar to Hong Kong, and the civilians still had no idea what to do. Their first instinct was to evacuate the streets, but the tank was only shooting at buildings, so they couldn't take refuge wherever there might be an omnic among them. So wherever the Overwatch team turned, people were packed together like sardines. It made the situation tricky because heavy duty weapons like Fareeha's rocket launcher would be necessary to disable the tank, but had a very high chance of injuring civilians.

Several members of the terrorist group were moving about the streets on foot, armed with rifles pressed against their hips. They shouted their message loudly into megaphones. They spoke in both Cantonese and English.

"Omnics are enemies, not friends. Report a neighbour, save your house."

Fareeha flew high for an aerial view of the situation.

"Pharah to units 1, 2, and 4. Barricade the streets at the following intersections." Fareeha started reading off coordinates, and Angela entered them into her GPS. "Unit 3, go to the following location and clear the area of civilians." Fareeha said some numbers, and Bastion whistled its acknowledgement. "That's where we will engage the tank."

"How do you know the tank will be there?" said Jesse.

"Trust me", said Fareeha over the radio. "We will engage the foot soldiers after we deal with the tank. If any try to stop you, only use lethal force if necessary."

Everyone gave the proper acknowledgments, and split up.

Angela was part of the units that were to set up barricades, but it was understood that she was free to provide medical treatment to anybody that needed it. And there was certainly no shortage of people who needed first-aid.

She moved through chaos, seeing things that she had seen too many times before. People digging their loved ones out of collapsed buildings. A woman crying as Angela made a splint for her leg that had been snapped in two. A man with tears running down his face as he yelled for his daughter that had been separated from him. The grim face of a boy as he stared at the corpses of his friends.

Among all the commotion, Angela could hear the angry buzz of the masses. They wanted to stop letting the omnics hide. If it would save human lives, they should give up the omnics.

Angela tried not to draw attention to herself, ducking out of the way whenever she saw anyone in a military uniform. She didn't want to encounter the enemy, but she didn't want the Hong Kong military to know she was there either. She wasn't supposed to let it become public knowledge that Overwatch was back, and she had been a prominent figure in the past. For this mission, she had disguised her iconic suit, and for the majority of the populace, it had been long enough that many had forgotten Angela's face. To each person she treated, she whispered to not lose hope, and to not give in and expose omnics. Most Hong Kong civilians understood English well enough, and the city had become multicultural to the point where nobody stared at Angela's blond hair. They didn't know who she was, but honoured the request of the woman who gave their friends and family life-saving treatment.

In the distance, Angela saw a ring of people gathered around something. She pushed her way through the crowd until she saw the body of a man who had been shot in the chest and abdomen. He was barely breathing, and she knelt down next to him, opened her satchel, and started an emergency operation.

Angela tilted her head slightly at people yelling at her in Cantonese, until someone addressed her in English.

"Stop it! That's a terrorist! He was rightly shot by our military forces."

"I'm still going to help him. This is a war of ideology, and nobody should have to die for it."

"If you help him, he'll kill more innocent people!"

"Does it look like he's capable of killing anybody right now?"

Somebody threw a rock at Angela, and it struck her temple, making her bleed. Angela continued her work, feeling the nanobots that rested under her skin repair damaged tissue. In the back of her head, she worried about her dwindling sources of personal nanobots. She knew that she should be saving them for field days, but she continued taking them every day anyway. She wanted to collect as much data as possible before she was forced to end her decades-long project.

In her peripheral vision, Angela saw people restraining the person who had thrown the rock at her. No doubt, many of them had seen her save the lives of their neighbours.

It was more concerning when she heard someone gasp upon noticing her closing injury and say something in Cantonese, with the only word she picked out being, "Mercy". The name spread like wildfire, and Angela hurried her work, suturing the man's flesh together and wrapping him up in a flurry of hands.

She cleaned up her tools, and threw her bloody gloves on the ground.

"When he wakes up, he should know that he almost died fighting for a group that had no qualms about taking innocent lives. And that he lived because despite all that, he's still human", said Angela.

"Hanzo to Mercy", came a strained voice through her earpiece.

"This is Mercy. Please continue."

"I have been immobilized. I require treatment." Hanzo stated his coordinates simply.

"Have you found cover?" pitched in a concerned sounding Jesse.

"Yes", responded Hanzo.

"You are extremely far from my current position", said Angela. "Pharah, if you could give me a hand?"

Within minutes, Angela spotted Fareeha hovering directly above her, and spreading her wings, she shot straight up towards her, amid a chorus of gasps.

Before Angela had someone in the sky to fly to, the use of her Valkyrie suit was mostly limited to horizontal movement. It wasn't usually a problem, given that it was much more common to fight in places with shorter or no buildings. But after the team's first mission, the potential of using Fareeha to bring Angela to where she needed to be did not pass anyone's attention. Many times, it was also a good way of keeping Angela out of harm's way. So Fareeha and Angela spent months practicing flying together, until the two had become an efficient aerial unit.

When Angela landed in a deserted alley, she saw Hanzo waving from behind a pile of rubble. He had been sprayed with bullets, but the attacker had somehow only managed to shoot his legs.

"Is it safe?" communicated Angela with hand gestures.

Hanzo pointed at the nearby corpse of a woman still clutching her gun, and Angela advanced to Hanzo's hiding spot.

"The injuries are not life-threatening", determined Angela. "We will use just enough nanobots to repair the bone." Angela administered a tiny dose of nanobots, and watched as some colour returned to Hanzo's complexion. Next was the hard part.

Angela instructed Fareeha to hold Hanzo down. She reached into her satchel and pulled out her tools, disinfecting them quickly by soaking them in ethanol and lighting them on fire. Before she bent down to take out each bullet and piece of debris with her forceps, she stuffed a ball of cloth into Hanzo's mouth. Angela always had the nimblest fingers. She stitched up Hanzo's wounds with ease as Hanzo screamed into his gag, straining against the hands Fareeha pressed on his shoulders, until he passed out from the pain.

"Reinhardt to Pharah, we have engaged the tank. It is exactly where you said it would be. We require your assistance."

"Can you take care of him?" Fareeha said to Angela.

"Yes", said Angela, wiping her bloody hands on Hanzo's shirt.

Without saying anything further, Angela hoisted Hanzo onto her shoulder, grunting in the effort.

"You're stronger than I thought", said Fareeha.

"Go", barked Angela.


	5. Chapter 5

Angela woke up in her bed, which sounds like a normal occurrence, if only she remembered how she got there.

The doctor sat straight up, noticing the way she was still fully-dressed. She checked the time to learn that it was the middle of the afternoon and she had been napping for almost two hours.

The last she remembered, Angela had fallen asleep at her desk in the infirmary. Angela had a habit of sleeping late at night and taking naps during the day. Although she knew she passed out consistently at the same time every day, she still did so at her desk. When she did it in the lab, Winston and MeiLing would leave her there. To be so invested in one's work to the point of spontaneously falling asleep was a badge of honour. Both of the other scientists also frequently fell asleep at their desks, and the most the others would do was put a blanket over their shoulders.

Things had changed a little with the Overwatch recall. Early on, Aleksandra began paying MeiLing frequent visits, and Angela watched as Aleksandra's questions about MeiLing's research led to the two women's blossoming romance. Now, instead of finding MeiLing sleeping in the lab, it was more of a common sight to see Aleksandra carrying her partner to her quarters.

Angela rubbed her eyes and headed towards the kitchen. She still had her lab coat on, but she didn't care. The hallways were long and devoid of people. When she got to the kitchen, she stopped to stare at the woman fussing with something at the counter.

Fareeha was wearing a loose shirt that was open down the sides, exposing bare skin. Angela couldn't help but let her eyes wander to the sports bra she could see when Fareeha raised her arm to put sugar back into a cabinet. When Fareeha turned around, she wasn't surprised at all to see Angela standing there.

"I figured you'd be here soon", explained Fareeha. "We always did wake up at the same time." Fareeha walked over to Angela with two mugs in her hands, and handed one to Angela. "Milk, and two sugars, right?"

Fareeha let her fingers linger over Angela's when she handed the cup over.

"Thank you, I didn't think you'd remember how I liked my coffee." Angela's nose twitched. "This isn't the garbage roast Overwatch usually buys."

"That's because I bought it", said Fareeha with a slight hint of pride in her voice. "While I was getting tea for myself, I saw the brand of coffee you used to have, so I picked it up as well."

Angela chuckled. "You took a risk in assuming my tastes haven't changed."

"It was no risk", said Fareeha. "You were always a very habitual person. It makes you very predictable. Was I right?"

 _I'm not predictable at all in the bedroom_ , thought Angela, but decided to keep that to herself. Instead, she said, "yes, you were." Angela paused and raised an eyebrow at Fareeha. "Did you carry me to my room?"

Fareeha took a sip of her tea. "I did. I guess my mother was the only person who did that for you? You're heavier than you used to be", said Fareeha with a twinkle in her eye.

"Of course! I'm proud of the weight I put on! I used to be a skinny, little stick, and now I can carry wounded soldiers like a real medic should be able to!" Angela brought up her arm and flexed it triumphantly, although there was nothing to see with her lab coat in the way.

"Still not impressive as me, though", boasted Fareeha, flexing her own arm. Angela's eyes bulged along with Fareeha's biceps.

"Oh, I _know_ ", muttered Angela. Fareeha took this as an admission of defeat, and decided to show off by flexing her other arm as well.

At that moment, Aleksandra and MeiLing walked into the kitchen.

 _Ursus arctos collaris, East Siberian brown bear_ , thought Angela. _And Aptenodytes forsteri, emperor penguin_. _Maybe a baby one though._

"Are we having a contest?" said Aleksandra. The ex-weightlifter tore the sleeves off her shirt, and flexed her tattoo-covered left arm.

MeiLing squealed and clapped her hands together, and Fareeha knew she was beaten.

"Mei, do the thing", said Aleksandra.

The short Chinese woman latched onto her girlfriend's upper arm and raised her feet a little. The two women laughed as Aleksandra effortlessly swung MeiLing gently back-and-forth.

"Ok, I get it", sighed Fareeha. She turned to the refrigerator to remove some pastries that she had left there to chill before her nap, and offered them to the other women.

MeiLing and Aleksandra helped themselves their preferred caffeinated beverages. As they exited the kitchen, Angela swooped up the pieces of fabric left on the floor.

"Don't forget your sleeves", said Angela, and MeiLing and Fareeha started giggling.

In the days that followed, Angela consistently found herself waking up in her bed. Fareeha admitted to carrying her there, but also refused to stop. Knowing that she would continue doing it just like Ana did, Angela eventually agreed to Fareeha's terms to start napping in her bed.

Angela yawned and walked down the long corridor towards her room. There had been a lot of shuffling as people began learning each other's sleeping habits. Most rooms had two bunk beds and could hold up to four people. Fareeha's room was nearest the exit. It was occupied by people who liked to wake up early. Her roommates were Aleksandra and Reinhardt, who were also famous for snoring loudly. Fareeha didn't snore, but she could sleep through anything, including the rumbling that sounded like trains rushing through her room.

Across the hall from Fareeha were Mako and Jamison. Nobody wanted to share their room partly because of strange smell that lingered, but mostly because of the frequent, small explosions that went off throughout the night.

Next to the loud sleepers, was the omnics' room, where Bastion and Zenyatta had their charging stations set up. Angela didn't know if Genji needed to sleep, but he stayed in that room as well.

Lena shared a room with Hana and Lúcio. For a long time, Lúcio stayed the room next to theirs with Hanzo and Jesse. However, after being rudely awakened several times to noises he wasn't keen on listening to, Lúcio had packed up his belongings and barged into Lena's room. Torbjörn had a family to take care of, so he only visited the base occasionally, but when he did, he would stay there too.

Satya had her own room at the end of the hall, just because she refused to share.

Finally, Angela came to the room she shared with MeiLing. It was the room designated for night owls. Winston would have been housed with them if he didn't decide to live in the lab.

Angela yawned again, and turned the doorknob to her room. When she opened it, she immediately closed it again, suddenly feeling a huge amount of empathy for what Lúcio had gone through.

"Nope", she said to herself.

She had seen Aleksandra naked before, as the Russian ex-weightlifter was very comfortable exposing herself in the communal showers. But the nakedness paired with the sight of the brawny woman nestled between the legs of one of Angela's best friends was a bit too much for Angela to handle.

Angela tiptoed away, which might have been unnecessary given that neither MeiLing nor Aleksandra had been distracted when she had opened the door. Angela made a beeline towards Fareeha's room, muttering a litany of "nope nope nope nope nope" the entire way. This time she decided to knock. She heard Fareeha invite her in, and deemed it was safe to enter.

Fareeha was already beneath the covers of the top bunk, and she peered down at Angela curiously.

"My room is occupied", grumbled Angela. She paused at the sight of Reinhardt napping in his gigantic custom-made bed. Thankfully, he wasn't snoring. "Ah, but I don't really want to sleep in Aleks's bed, even though she's the one in my room at the moment, with Mei. I don't want to be reminded of her right now."

"Do you mean they're…?"

"Yes, Fareeha, they're having sex. Right now. I think I saw underwear on my bed."

Fareeha laughed. "Would you like to use my bed, then? I don't mind using Aleks's."

"Yes! Thank you Fareeha!"

Fareeha hopped down to the bunk below her.

"Mei doesn't sleep in our room sometimes. Does she spend the night here?"

"She does! Sometimes when I wake up, I find Mei in Aleks's bed. If they're doing dirty things here, Reinhardt and I just sleep right through it."

"You know I'm a heavy sleeper too. I wouldn't know if they were doing the same thing in my room if they timed it right."

Angela climbed the ladder to Fareeha's bunk, and grinned when she got to the top.

"Does the mighty Captain Amari of Helix Security International still sleep with stuffed animals?"

Fareeha was silent when she stood to her full height, and pulled down the gigantic falcon plush she kept on her bed. Angela immediately knew she said something wrong.

"I do. This was my mother's. Reinhardt shipped it to me after the "accident"."

"Oh, Fareeha, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean…"

"No, that's alright. And if I weren't using it, I'd be cuddling a body pillow instead. It was hard for me to fall asleep for the first few weeks here, because there were some delays in shipping this from Egypt."

"But about Ana… I want you to know that while it's not exactly the same, I know what it's like to lose your parents…"

"Oh, don't worry about that", interrupted Fareeha with a wave of her arm. "I don't want to talk about this right now."

"I'm sorry. If you ever want to talk, you can come to me."

"Thank you", said Fareeha, who lay down on Aleksandra's bed. An awkward stretch of silence grew between them, until Fareeha spoke again. "There's one thing I regret about my mother."

"What is it?"

"We had a falling out before I left for Egypt."

Angela nodded her head, even though Fareeha couldn't see her.

"She tried to reach me so many times, but I declined the hologram requests and the phone calls. She sent me so many letters, but I never responded to any of them. I wish I did. And I wish I visited her at least once. Now, I've spent as much of my life without seeing her face as I have seeing it."

Angela lay on her back above the covers of Fareeha's bed, staring at the ceiling.

"I know there's no point agonizing over it now. I've already honoured her memory so I can look forward again. I'm wearing the hair ornaments that she had to send to me when I left them behind. And I got the Eye of Horus tattoo to show that I am proud of my connection to my mother, and I will always be her daughter, no matter what."

When it didn't seem like Fareeha had anything else to say, Angela thought it was time to say something before Fareeha fell asleep. She rolled onto her stomach and let one of her arms hang off the side of the bed.

"Hey", said Angela.

She waited until she felt Fareeha hook her pinky with Angela's.

"Thank you for telling me this."

"Mm."

Angela let her hand go when she started to feel Fareeha's arm get heavier. She heard the sound of Fareeha shifting in the bed, and the tell-tale sound of the plastic pellets in the falcon plush, suggesting that it was nestled in Fareeha's arms. Images of being held in those strong arms came unbidden to Angela, and she flopped onto her back, willing her mind to go blank.

For a while, she listened to Fareeha's steady breathing, and the way the air whistled through Reinhardt's nose every time he inhaled. Instead of relaxing, she became acutely aware of being surrounded in Fareeha's scent. Then, for an incredibly guilty moment, Angela felt jealous of the plush.

Angela carefully climbed out of the bed, and headed towards the gym, deciding that it was a good time to get some extra energy out of her system.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: A messy chapter for messy feelings.**

 **I've been making references to "A Mother's Diary" throughout this story, but this chapter mentions a lot from the chapter "Fareeha and the Poster" and the one-shot "Fareeha the Teenager". This chapter should be readable without context, but there's a lot more meaning if you've read them. It also doesn't hurt to read Pharah's official comic and watch Ana's origin story.  
**

* * *

Fareeha wasn't herself.

Maybe it was because the Overwatch team had scanned the area and detected anti-air units before their mission, stranding Fareeha on the ground. But the woman had had plenty of experience on the ground before she joined Helix Security International, so surely that couldn't have been it.

The members of the team who had been selected for the mission were positioned under cover, watching the choke point that the new batch of omnics infected with a God Program was due to storm through. Bastion was at the centre of the strategy, and Fareeha and Aleksandra accompanied it. Angela was mostly just there to keep Aleksandra from turning on Bastion. They had covered Bastion with shrubbery until the only part of it that could be seen was the dark circle of the barrel of its gun.

Normally, during the calm before battle, Fareeha was physically tense but mentally focused. But for the whole day, Fareeha looked distracted. When Fareeha kept the team waiting in the hangar, Angela offered to look for her. She found her on the roof, staring at the sky with a dazed look on her face. She briefly snapped out of it when Angela asked if she was alright, and insisted on going on the mission.

As they waited for the omnics, Angela kept on throwing concerned looks at Fareeha, and every time, there was that glassy-eyed stare at nothing in particular. She wanted to ask what was wrong, but now wasn't the right time to do it.

Angela heard Aleksandra hold her breath as the first of the omnics started to show. She saw the red lights of the omnics' eyes flashing, indicating hostility, and confirming that these were the omnics they were waiting for. Angela felt sorry for them, wondering if there was some way to erase the virus that controlled their minds.

The omnics moved packed tightly together, as if they were more of one being than many. A dull drone filled the air, like millions of bees on alert for honey snatchers. Angela waited for Fareeha to issue the command to open fire.

She counted the number of breaths Aleksandra made as she waited.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

The omnics were moving fast, and if they waited any longer, they would lose their advantageous position.

Angela crawled a few metres on her belly, drew her staff and poked the bottom of Fareeha's boot with it. She saw Fareeha's head jerk, and she responded immediately.

"Fire!" she ordered.

Bastion did not hesitate at all as it spewed forth bullets. Fareeha and Aleksandra lay on either side of Bastion, shooting their projectiles at the omnics. Bastion would have made short work of the omnics if they were lined up conveniently, but they had already advanced past the bottleneck and had issued the command to spread out.

"Dang", said Fareeha, and Angela heard Fareeha's jump jets project her upwards.

"Wait!" yelled Angela after her, but it was too late. Fareeha had already given away their position and made herself as vulnerable as a naked baby. "Zarya! Pharah needs a shield!"

Aleksandra was forced to stop shooting at the omnics that were starting to surround them on both sides, and Angela could hear the sound of her particle cannon working on gathering the energy it needed to project a barrier far enough to reach Fareeha.

"Rocket barrage incom-ahhh!" Angela watched in dismay as Fareeha was shot down from the sky. Fortunately, her Raptora suit was still functioning, and Fareeha dropped onto the roof of a building, where she used her height advantage to continue launching rockets at the enemy.

Angela swore and unloaded her pistol at an omnic trying to climb up the side of the building Fareeha was on. She didn't care if she should be hiding in the back-lines. She was going to put an end to this and they were going to be home in time for dinner.

* * *

Fareeha leaned heavily on Aleksandra, trusting her to support the weight off an injured leg, where armour-piercing bullets had made ugly work out of her calf. Her armour was riddled was dents, but it wasn't clear how much had gotten through.

"Take off all your armour", commanded Angela as soon as they got on the jet.

"It's just a scratch", Fareeha mumbled to Angela. "It's nothing, really."

"And yet you came running to me for _actual_ scratches that you inflicted upon yourself." Fareeha's cheeks darkened. "I told you a long time ago to never get used to saying that to me. I'll hold you to the same standard now as I did then."

Fareeha obeyed Angela, and released several latches on her suit, allowing her to take apart her suit piece-by-piece. Like Angela's suit, it was a pain to put on, but was designed to come off easily in case they needed to shed weight quickly for whatever reason. Angela noted the way Fareeha avoided using her left arm.

By the time Fareeha was stripped down to the black, heat-repelling flight suit that Angela also wore, Angela had already sanitized herself and her equipment.

She injected a local anaesthetic into Fareeha's leg, and cleaned her wound. The skin was too torn to stitch cleanly, but the wound wasn't that deep either. She did what she could for the cleanest parts of the injury, and bandaged the rest up.

When she finished her work, Angela noticed a small rip in the fabric on Fareeha's shoulder. Still fuming at Fareeha's compulsive behaviour, and because a heat-repelling suit lost most of its functionality after a rip anyway, Angela wormed her fingers into the hole, and jerked the material apart, tearing a massive hole.

The action exposed a quarter of Fareeha's torso, and the soldier gasped. She instinctively covered her breasts with her right arm, even though she still had a bra on underneath.

Angela felt up the heavily-bruised skin, and pressed gently on specific points. Upon hearing Fareeha sucking in air between her teeth, she grabbed the side of Fareeha's shoulder with one hand. Using her other hand, Angela pushed on Fareeha's chest until Fareeha's back was pressed against the wall of the jet.

"Were you going to tell me you had dislocated your shoulder, or were you just going to let it dangle at your side for the rest of your life?"

"I'm sorry… I…"

"Relax", warned Angela, and swiftly jerked the ball of Fareeha's humerus back into its joint socket.

Fareeha sighed her relief, and Angela wanted to chide Fareeha so badly, but she knew Fareeha wouldn't have flown at all if she had acted like her usual self. Instead, she exhaled her frustration, leaned into Fareeha's good shoulder, and clutched the dog tags that dangled over Fareeha's chest. She took a good moment to inhale the heavy scent of sweat and fuel. She knew that she should order Fareeha to see Zenyatta, whose one of greatest assets to Overwatch was to help members through trauma and emotional unrest, but she didn't want to.

"Please Fareeha. Talk to me. Whenever. I'll listen, I promise."

"I know", said Fareeha.

* * *

A week later, someone walked into one of Angela's experiment rooms, just as Angela stuck a needle into an unconscious mouse's still-beating heart.

Although Angela spent the day in the infirmary, by midnight most people were in bed, and Angela could sneak in a few hours conducting experiments in the lab. MeiLing had retired earlier than usual, probably taking advantage of the time to invite Aleksandra to her room.

Everyone knew that the experiment rooms were off-limits unless there was an emergency, so Angela was instantly anxious to see who had entered, until she smelled Fareeha's clean scent.

"What are you doing?" asked Fareeha.

"I'm performing a perfusion. I need this mouse's brain for an experiment, but I have to make sure that there's no blood in it. I'm using the mouse's heart to pump this solution around the body and flush out the mouse's blood.

"That seems a little… cruel."

"Don't worry, the mouse is knocked out cold, and doesn't feel anything."

Angela finished the task, and pulled out a little device.

"Is that a mini-guillotine?"

"Yes, despite advances in technology, "primitive" techniques still do their jobs as well as ever. You might not want to watch this."

"Angela, I've killed people, I think I can handle a mouse… oh."

Angela had pulled a lever, and the mouse's head popped right off.

"You probably won't want to watch me take out the brain."

Fareeha heeded Angela's advice this time, and Angela cut open the mouse's skull and carefully used her forceps to transfer the brain to a tube.

"Is there something wrong?" asked Angela.

"Not really."

Angela had wanted to do a little bit more that night, but knew that Fareeha was lying and had something to talk to her about. So she decided to freeze the brain and start cleaning up. She would wait for Fareeha until she was ready.

"I'm surprised you can take a life so easily", said Fareeha.

"It's not that hard. I don't see life itself as intrinsically valuable."

This clearly surprised Fareeha.

"Then why do you fight so hard to save so many lives? Even for the lives of the people and omnics that the rest of us are trying to kill?"

Fareeha was staring at Angela hard, and Angela knew Fareeha was testing her, to see if she was worthy of her secret.

"Fareeha, do you believe in life after death?"

"No, I don't."

"Neither do I. That begs the question, why bother doing any of this, if it doesn't matter after we're dead? We're not going to remember." Fareeha opened her mouth to say something, but Angela interrupted. "Hold on. I've never said this aloud so I need to think about what I'm trying to say."

Fareeha waited.

"It isn't my goal to save lives per se. I fight for ideals, not people. I want to live in a world without pain and suffering. I can do research and contribute to medicine so more deaths become preventable. However, even though I could save more lives if, for example, I found a cure for cancer, I also need to be a doctor so I can help people at an individual level. It makes me feel like I'm actually making an impact. Saving lives is a just a by-product when working towards what I believe in. So is taking the lives of mice for research."

Angela drained the pan of mouse blood she had collected.

"Have you ever felt bad about the people you couldn't save?"

"I have never lost a single patient that I got to operate on", said Angela proudly. "Though, I admit that some people have come out less recognizably human."

"I can't understand why you care so much about this if you think it doesn't matter after you die."

"Because I'm not a robot, Fareeha. I don't operate purely on logic and facts. It just comes down the fact that I enjoy living, and I assume the same for everybody else. And I don't want anybody to suffer the way I have."

Fareeha started to react to something Angela said, but Angela could tell that the other woman was holding something back. She decided to proceed cautiously.

"To be clear, I don't care about actually achieving my goals. I know that no matter how hard I try, the world will barely feel my contribution to it. No matter how many lives I save, thousands die every day of preventable causes. It's pointless to stress about it. The reason why I even bother trying to do anything is because it makes me feel good; it gives me meaning. Life may not be intrinsically valuable, but that doesn't mean you can't give it value. To me, life isn't about getting to the end goal, it's about the journey."

Fareeha had that glassy look in her eyes again, and Angela didn't know if she should continue or not. There was something about Fareeha that made her spill more than she planned to, and she certainly had never talked about her motives to anybody else before. They had just assumed that she was a perfect, benevolent being that wanted to help everyone. She knew she said something right, but there were so many things she said that could have triggered Fareeha's deep thinking.

"The journey isn't always a smooth ride, is it?" said Fareeha finally.

"No, but that's not a bad thing."

"Once when I was a kid, you told me about how if you were broken, you don't have to stay broken. And even if you come out with scars, it's not a good or bad thing. You're just different."

Angela was surprised that Fareeha still remembered the conversation. It had been the first time Angela had unloaded onto Fareeha, well, anybody, really. She hadn't said it explicitly, but she had been talking about how she came to terms with losing her parents. She wondered if Fareeha, as just a child, had picked up on it.

It wasn't that her teammates never asked; Angela just wasn't interested in talking about herself. But as a child, there was nothing Fareeha liked more than listening to the adults tell stories. She could go hours without saying a word. The young Fareeha's shy, quiet presence made it easy to talk to her. Perhaps the teenage Angela saw a likeliness of herself in her, a girl who never had any friends her age.

"So, I shouldn't be scared, right?" continued Fareeha. "Of things that might break me?"

"Fareeha", said Angela, grabbing the other woman's shoulder and squeezing it. "What's wrong?"

"I have a favour to ask", said Fareeha with an achingly soft voice. Angela couldn't help but stare at the way Fareeha's arms wrapped around her body, as if she were shrinking upon herself.

"What do you need?" replied Angela.

"I. Well. First I need to tell you something, but you have to promise to keep it a secret for now."

"I promise. I'm good at keeping things to myself."

"Ok. Well, you see. My mother is alive."

Angela stifled her gasp with her hand.

"Are you sure? I mean, I never wanted to believe it because we never found Ana's body, and... This is great! I mean, it's definitely a shock, and I'm so…" Angela cut herself off when she saw the way Fareeha looked almost relieved that Angela had been rambling. As if the longer she rambled, the less Fareeha would have to talk. It took all of Angela's willpower to keep herself from asking questions. "I'm sorry. Go on."

Fareeha flinched, but continued. "She sent me letters. The first one was when she disappeared, telling me she was ok. Then I didn't hear from her again until five months ago, when she explained what happened and why she just left. I'm an adult, so I understand why she did what she did. I've been there too. I know she loves me, but… but… It's so hard."

Fareeha blinked rapidly, and her hand clenched and unclenched, until Angela decided to keep it still by sliding her hand in hers and holding it open.

"It's ok, Fareeha", said Angela softly. Her voice encouraged Fareeha to keep talking.

"I got another letter from her a week ago. She wants to come back to Overwatch. But she wants to meet with me first, you know, because I'm her daughter and all." Fareeha took a deep breath and let it go slowly. "I don't want to see her."

"Fareeha…"

"That was a lie. I _really_ want to see her. But it wasn't a lie! I don't want to see her at all! I don't know why, I just… it _hurts_ Angela. It hurts so much."

Angela squeezed Fareeha's hand, not sure of what she should do or say, so she didn't say anything.

"I don't really have a choice. She's going to come back to Overwatch so I'll see her anyway, so I have to be an adult. I'm going to meet with her tonight. The favour I wanted from you… I mean, you don't have to do it if you don't want to. But can you please come with me?"

 _Tonight_ , thought Angela, doing her best to keep her hand from shaking. She was still reeling over the news that Ana was alive. She wasn't even sure what she was going to say to Ana. But it wasn't about her. Angela knew that Fareeha had more right to be uncertain and afraid.

"I'll come. When do we need to go?"

"I'm actually already late. But the place we're meeting is pretty close. My mother has been hiding out in a cave two kilometres away."

"She's been _that_ close to us, ever since we came here?"

"Maybe. I found the letters I got from her on my pillow. I asked Athena about it. She said my mother was here! And the damn A.I. didn't tell anybody about it! I bet she led my mother right to my room! Twice!"

"I'm sure Ana told Athena not to tell unless asked", said Angela. "Now, let's go before Ana thinks you've given up on her."

Finding the cave was much harder than Angela expected. The watchpoint was surrounded by water on one side, and a dense cover of trees and shrubs on the other. There weren't any paths made by humans or large animals, so Angela followed Fareeha as she slowly ploughed a path for them. Angela held the flashlight as Fareeha followed the GPS coordinates Ana had left for her.

"I wish we could fly", mumbled Fareeha.

Angela didn't respond because she didn't need to. Fareeha's leg may have healed, but her suit was still in repair.

Angela and Fareeha didn't speak much as they walked. Angela was trying to figure out what she wanted to say to Ana, and she was sure Fareeha was doing the same.

When they finally arrived at right point, Angela didn't see anything. She didn't see a cave, and she didn't see Ana.

Angela noticed Fareeha anxiously twisting something blue in her hands.

"She left", croaked Fareeha.

At the sound of Fareeha's voice, leaves started to rustle. Angela turned around just in time to see a bush get pushed aside, and a woman climbing out of a hole. Angela gasped and wanted to say something, but slipped behind Fareeha so she wasn't standing between the two Amaris.

Ana Amari once had a magnificent mane of hair. The last time Angela saw her, Ana's hair was already greying. Now her hair was completely white, and she wore it in a braid that ran down her shoulder. She wore the wrinkles that she had earned through age proudly. They were trophies of having survived through so many years of fighting. She had a hood covering the hijiab she wore loosely, and although she had an eye patch that covered a large part of her face, the Eye of Ra she bore under her left eye made it clear as day that the woman was indeed Ana.

Both women were completely silent. They just stared at each other. Angela placed a warm hand on Fareeha's stiff back to let her know that she was still there to help if she needed it.

Fareeha raised her hand to her head in a salute and held it.

"Captain Amari", said Fareeha.

At first Ana was hesitant, but then she straightened her back and imitated Fareeha's gesture.

"Captain Amari", said Ana, with a hoarser voice than she used to have.

Angela laughed in that moment without meaning to. It was just like Ana to say something like that. It turned out that Angela's accidental outburst was exactly what the two needed to break the ice.

"You knew I was a captain at Helix Security International?" said Fareeha.

"Of course I knew", replied Ana, lowering her hand. "You are my daughter. I make it my business to know everything about you. But you should know that I have not been a captain for a long time."

When Fareeha didn't respond, Ana breathed deeply and glanced at Angela.

"You look good, Angela. I take it Fareeha would not have made it here without you?"

"I'm sorry, I mean… You look good too, I mean… Ahhh, please pretend I'm not here. You don't have to keep using English for my sake."

"No, I want to", said Fareeha, and Angela's heart broke for Fareeha. English was much more impersonal for Fareeha. It made it easier for her handle the situation. Unfortunately for Fareeha, Ana picked up on this too. When Ana started speaking in Arabic, Angela reached for Fareeha's hand and held it tightly. Fareeha would later fill in the parts Angela didn't understand.

" _I know it's hard for you, habibti…_ "

"Don't call me that", interrupted Fareeha, grinding her teeth. She squeezed Angela's hand so hard, Angela was worried she would break it.

" _I know I haven't been the best mother to you…_ "

"Stop."

" _Please, Fareeha. Please, I love you so much…"_

" _Stop_ ", said Fareeha in Arabic.

And Ana stopped, not because she wanted to, or because Fareeha told her to, but because tears cascaded down her cheeks. She covered her face, and shook her head, as if she had been afraid that this would happen.

Angela couldn't guess at what was going through Fareeha's head, as the taller woman stiffened even more and clutched Angela's hand even harder. Fareeha was no doubt uncomfortable at watching the woman she had admired for so long break down in front of her. The woman that had disappeared and stopped contacting her. The woman that was her mother.

"I understand how you felt", started Fareeha slowly in English, weighing each word before letting it go. "I used to ask myself, "the man or the mission"? For a long time, I thought the mission trumped the man in importance. I took lives without questioning it. I accepted my teammates' deaths when they happened. I lost so many before I understood that every time I lost a member of my team, I lost a family member. After I fought for so many years I understood that feeling that no matter how many battles you fight, no matter how many people you kill, there will always be another person's war to fight. So I decided to fight for myself. To fight to protect my family. To fight for justice."

Fareeha squeezed Angela's hand again, and then loosened her hold.

"I'm glad", continued Fareeha. "When I read your letter, you said the same things. It felt like I had written it. But I'm mad at you… Not because you didn't contact me enough, but because you didn't give me a way to respond to you. I'm sorry I got mad at you when you didn't want me to join Overwatch. But I'm glad that I didn't listen to you, because if I did, I wouldn't have been able to understand what you went through."

Angela felt Fareeha's whole body unwind, as if she had been thinking about what her problem with Ana was for a long time, but the idea didn't become real until she articulated it out loud. It was then that Angela knew that everything was going to be alright.

" _Here_ ", said Fareeha in Arabic, holding out a blue beret to Ana. " _This is yours. I've been taking care of it for you._ "

Ana choked on her tears and took her beret, letting her fingers linger on Fareeha's. Then, she took a brave step forward, put the beret on Fareeha's head, and held it there.

" _I'm so proud of you. I missed you so much, habibti_."

" _Welcome back, Mama._ "

Ana broke down into a crying mess, and clung onto Fareeha's shoulders, else she melt into a puddle on the ground.

" _I'm finally home_ ", whispered Ana.


	7. Chapter 7

"We have to decline."

Everybody in the meeting room turned to stare at Fareeha.

Angela was relieved. Fareeha had taken the words right out of her mouth, and she had expected that no one would agree with her. She wasn't one to enjoy confrontation, and she was immensely grateful that she wouldn't have to argue for her position alone, like she always had in the past.

"Why?" said Winston. "This is great news. If we agree to the UN's offer, we'll become legitimate again. We'll actually get a stable source of income, and Overwatch will grow to be restored to its former glory."

The team's mission in Hong Kong had unintended consequences. People had taken pictures of Angela, and it was confirmed that the woman covered in dirt and blood was indeed Mercy. And instead of working alone like she had for the last few years, Mercy was travelling in a group. When the news got out that Overwatch was back in action, the team packed up their belongings in case they had to move to a new location. What they didn't expect was for the United Nations to welcome them back with open arms.

"The UN might not be on the right side this time. This omnic crisis is different from the first. The First Omnic Crisis was caused by God Program infections. The affected omnics didn't have a choice when they went around on murderous rampages, so there was no choice but to put them down. But this time we're not fighting against just God Programs", said Fareeha.

Angela recalled the recording the world had watched not too long ago.

In response to the small outbreaks of different God Programs in different parts of the world, tension grew even more between humans and omnics. After the incident in Hong Kong, Russian omnics gathered in Moscow to stage a march in memory of the innocent omnics that had been displaced or killed.

What began as a peaceful demonstration ended in chaos, as the Russian military opened fire on the omnics without a word of warning. Somebody had streamed the incident live from the relative safety of a third-floor balcony. Amidst the sounds of guns popping, bullets hitting metal, and omnics screaming, cheers could be heard clearly emanating from the human spectators. There weren't any survivors. The footage was so graphic Winston had to make sure Bastion wasn't present when he played it at their meeting. Omnics couldn't produce tears, but everyone knew Zenyatta cried.

"This time it isn't just humans versus omnics. As far as we know, Talon started this, and we don't even know why yet. The omnics that are actually infected with God Programs are a tiny percentage of all the omnics alive right now. What's happening is that otherwise harmless omnics are getting pitted against the human population that is getting increasingly riled up. In reality, the bad guys on both sides are a minority, but the UN will have us representing humans as a whole. Omnics are still hugely underrepresented in the UN", said Fareeha.

"I do not see the problem", said Aleksandra. "The best way to end this crisis is to eliminate all omnics. Then there will no longer be conflict between omnics and humans." She stared directly at Zenyatta.

"That's ridiculous", said Angela. "For one thing, you can achieve the same result by killing all humans. Secondly, you should know by now that we have never been successful in shutting down or destroying omniums, so there will always be omnics to replace the ones we kill. Thirdly, you can't discount that omnics have the same consciousness that humans have. Their processing centre was based exactly off of the human brain, making them think exactly like us. They can feel the same emotions we do. To eliminate one virus-free omnic is the same as murdering a human. And the line between human and omnic is blurred by advancing technology that allows people to replace body parts with robotic ones. Look at Genji."

Everybody turned to look at the cyborg that was sitting with his arms crossed over his chest.

"He has very few actual human parts. And yet you wouldn't consider him any less human than me", finished Angela.

"I do", said Aleksandra. "How do I trust a man who is half machine?"

"The heart of a man still beats inside of me", said Genji.

"Both humans and omnics have already dirtied their hands", said Fareeha, before the argument could dissolve into violence. "This is going to be a war where both sides have justification to fight. Both sides will commit atrocities for the honour of their own kind. There is no justice in this kind of war."

"I agree with Fareeha", said Angela. "If we want to solve this problem, we need to find a way to prevent God Programs from spreading, and inhibit them after infection has taken place. We know it's possible, we have living proof of that."

Bastion whistled its appreciation.

"We're in a good position now", said Fareeha. "We're small, and not tied down to anybody. It gives us the freedom to pick-and-choose our battles on a case-by-case basis."

"If we work for the UN, we will be able to make a bigger impact", said Ana, raising a challenging stare at Fareeha.

A different kind of tension rose in the room. The team had celebrated Ana's return from what they had assumed to be death, and the original members of Overwatch had no hesitation in spending whole days catching up with her. The newer members were captivated by her stories, and jostled for seats closest to the veteran like children. However, the relationship between Ana and Fareeha remained stagnant. Fareeha seemed to have forgiven her mother on an intellectual level, but there was still a space that they couldn't bridge between them. And the rest of the team was fully aware of the fact. Angela didn't think it was either woman's fault. They were just waiting for the other to make the first move.

"You are too idealistic, Fareeha. If we did it your way, we will have to wait until lives have already been lost before we take action", said Ana.

"There is no justice in punishing people and omnics if they're just a threat to innocent lives. They haven't done anything yet. Until they soil their records by themselves, they are innocent as well", said Fareeha.

"Overwatch was shut down for a reason", said Angela. "It's because of the sketchy behaviour of Blackwatch, assassinating people based on threat alone."

"Blackwatch's actions were justifiable", growled Jesse. "If you could save a hundred lives by pre-emptively taking one, wouldn't you?"

"Blackwatch was headed by Gabriel, who started seeing enemies wherever he went. For goodness sake, he blew up our headquarters in Switzerland", said Angela.

"Gabriel had good intentions at the start", said Ana.

"It's not like you or Fareeha are perfect", Jesse said to Angela. "I don't see either of you checking each person or omnic for "guilt" before you kill them on the battlefield."

Angela and Fareeha defended themselves at the same time.

"I don't shoot to kill", said Angela.

"I only use lethal force if necessary", said Fareeha.

The two women exchanged glances and Fareeha let Angela repeat herself before continuing her thought.

"At least, I don't kill if I'm given a choice. When I worked for the army and Helix Security, I had to follow orders. But I was hoping that I'd get to abide by my own moral standards this time", said Fareeha.

"What difference does it make if we're following the money anyway?" said Jesse.

Fareeha opened her mouth to argue, but Ana interjected.

"In any case, if we do not accept the UN's offer, Overwatch will continue to be illegal", said Ana. "And now that it has been confirmed that we are back, if we say no, they are going to persecute us until we are forced to disband. If we join the UN, we will be able to stay together, and that is the important part. We are all family now. That is why I came back. Because I have to protect my family."

There was a loud bang when Fareeha stood up abruptly, knocking her chair to the floor. "You've done an awfully good job at being family", snarled Fareeha.

The whole room went deathly silent. Members that hadn't spoken yet shifted uncomfortably in their seats, wishing that the meeting would just end.

Somehow Fareeha managed to maintain a staring contest with every set of eyes that dared to swivel in her direction, until the tension became so unbearable, Fareeha stormed out of the room, more to the benefit of everybody else rather than herself.

"Angela", said Zenyatta. "I will continue to argue in your place. Go to Fareeha."

"Shouldn't Ana…" started Angela, but stopped. One look at Ana's face made it clear as day that she wasn't in the right mood to settle things with Fareeha.

 _Why me_ , thought Angela, who followed Zenyatta's suggestion and left after Fareeha.

Angela had an inkling of where Fareeha would be. She ascended the stairs up the building as high as they would go, until she came across a latch in the ceiling. She opened it, and climbed up a ladder until she made it on top of the roof.

She found Fareeha sitting on the edge of the roof with her knees pulled up to chest. Fareeha didn't have to see who touched her shoulder. She knew immediately that it was Angela. She accepted her presence, and Angela took a seat next to her. They sat in silence, watching the heavy, cumulonimbus clouds roll across the sky. Perhaps they stayed like that for hours, maybe only a few minutes, Angela wasn't sure. Despite the gravity of the situation, they were so high up and so far removed from all the people that made life feel so complicated, Angela couldn't help but feel at peace.

But she knew that they were just running away from their problems.

Angela's fingers toyed with the dog tags that dangled around her neck. It was now mandatory for every member of Overwatch to wear them at all times, not just when they went into combat.

Angela hesitantly pulled Fareeha to lean against her side.

"It's ok to cry", said Angela.

It started as pained gulps of air, like a fish struggling to breathe out of water. Then, the floodgates opened, and the most Angela could do was anchor Fareeha to her chest, as the soldier unloaded years of frustration.

Angela rubbed small circles on Fareeha's back when her sobs turned into small whimpers interspersed between hiccups. She delicately ran her other hand through Fareeha's hair.

"Give her a chance", whispered Angela. "I'd give everything for the chance to argue with my parents again."

Angela felt Fareeha's arms wrap around her back, and then realized that her cheeks were wet. Angela buried her face in Fareeha's shoulder, and for the first time in almost twenty-seven years, Angela cried for her parents again.

* * *

It may have been easy for Ana and Fareeha to avoid each other, but it was much harder for Angela.

When given the options she had for rooms, Ana chose to stay in Angela and MeiLing's room. Ana had become something of a night crawler in the seven years since she lost her eye. She told grandiose tales of her adventures sabotaging Talon missions, but Angela determined that Ana's detailed explanations of such a small timeframe was a diversion from actually having to talk about herself.

Angela and MeiLing had each taken the bottom bunks of their respective beds, and Ana had chosen to sleep in the bunk above Angela. The night after the meeting, MeiLing had gone to spend the night with Aleksandra, leaving Ana and Angela alone.

"Angela", came Ana's voice just as Angela's eyelids were starting to droop.

"What is it?"

"How could you do that to Gabriel?"

Angela's body stiffened, and she became completely awake.

"You know he's alive?" said Angela.

"Yes, him and Jack. I know you are the reason why they did not die in the explosion in Switzerland."

Moonlight shone through the window, giving Angela a clear view of everything in the room except for the person she was talking to.

"Jack was going to live regardless. He was injured, but it looked like Gabriel had taken most of the damage. I think the explosion was accidental, and to this day I believe that Gabriel was trying to protect Jack. By the time I found them, Gabriel was too far gone, and most of my supplies had been blown up. Even I barely got out of the building alive. I had managed to salvage these nanobots I was developing that hadn't been tested yet. It was supposed to be a cure for cancer. The first wave of nanobots would force the cancerous cells to undergo rapid apoptosis – ah, that's programmed cell death – before the second wave encouraged stable division of healthy cells. It didn't work as planned. But I had no choice. It was the only thing I had on me. He would've died otherwise."

"I am grateful that you tried to help him", said Ana. "But I think that there are some things that are worse than death."

"I don't know how the nanobots are still working", said Angela. "I'll find a way to fix it."

"Do not blame yourself", said Ana. "This is my fault. It is because I was not there to protect them."

Ana sighed and Angela could hear her turning onto her side. Angela knew that Ana was holding the falcon plush that Fareeha had returned.

"I have been a terrible mother, haven't I?" said Ana.

Angela didn't respond.

"My unit depended on me. I did my best to protect them. They called me "Mama Bear", but by then, I had already lost my own cub."

"Ana…"

"I have been a mother to you almost as long as I have been a mother to Fareeha."

Ana took a ragged breath.

"During the seven years I went missing, I was in Egypt. I stayed in the same city as Fareeha that whole time. I slept during the day, and made a living during the night. Naturally, our waking hours overlapped, and sometimes I would watch her. I disguised myself, and I would follow her at a distance when she went to the market. Sometimes I would go to her home and dare myself to knock on the door. But I could never bring myself to do it."

"Why not?"

"Because I am a coward" said Ana bitterly. "When I knew people presumed I was dead, I saw it as an opportunity to run. To run from my reputation of being so good at killing other people's children. And then when I thought about my Fareeha, I thought about how unfair it was to the parents of my victims that my child lived while theirs were dead. I felt so guilty. So I ran from Fareeha too."

"At least you came back."

"I did, but I do not know how to be a mother anymore. All I know is how to shoot."

"You can't force your relationship to be the same it was sixteen years ago. Even my relationship with Fareeha isn't the same as it was then. Just talk to her. Tell her everything you just told me. Fareeha has always been the listening type, but you have to approach her first. She's waiting for you."

Ana seemed to consider what Angela said for a while.

"You are right. Thank you, Angela."

"You're welcome."

"Angela, what exactly is your relationship with my daughter anyway?"

"We're friends", said Angela quickly. "Good friends."

"Oh, I see", said Ana. "What a shame."

"Angela!"

Reinhardt barged down the door and had yelled so loud, Angela and Ana both instantly sat up in their beds. MeiLing and Aleksandra peered in curiously from outside the room.

Angela jumped to her feet and was slightly alarmed at the sight of Reinhardt carrying an unconscious Fareeha in his arms. Although she was a decently tall woman, with that giant of a man holding her, she looked very much like a child.

" _She's dead. I killed her_ ", cried Reinhardt, so distraught he addressed Angela in German.

" _What?_ " responded Angela in kind.

" _She hasn't been sleeping well lately because she liked to sleep with that falcon plush_ ", rushed Reinhardt, taking a moment to look in the direction of Ana, where the stuffed animal laid. " _She asked if she could sleep with me, so I let her. While I was asleep, I rolled over and I… I squashed her…_ " Reinhardt held Fareeha out, offering her to Angela.

Even from next to her bed and through the darkness, Angela could see Fareeha's chest rising and falling softly.

"Reinhardt. She's just asleep", said Angela in English so that Ana would stop looking so scared.

"So that's it", said MeiLing. "I was wondering why he broke down the door."

"Now we need to replace _two_ doors", mumbled Aleksandra. "In the morning", she added.

Reinhardt laughed. "Oops! My mistake!"

"Fareeha must have been _very_ tired if she slept through all that", said Angela. "Reinhardt, why don't you put her next to the falcon plush she likes so much?" She heard Ana start to move. "No, Ana, you stay with her."

Reinhardt did as Angela suggested.

MeiLing yawned, and Aleksandra scooped her up into her arms.

When the three other members left to go back to bed, Angela stood on the bottom rungs of the bunk bed ladder so that she could see the mother and daughter more clearly.

Ana sat in the corner of the bed, furthest away from Fareeha, with an uncertain look on her face. After all, the last thing that had happened between them was Fareeha's outburst at the meeting.

Angela supposed that Fareeha had been especially exhausted after crying for so long. Coupled with a week of little to no sleep, and of course she would have passed out like this. Although she wasn't too concerned, Angela still pressed her hands over Fareeha's limbs and chest, checking for broken bones. Reinhardt's weight was nothing to sneeze at.

"She hasn't been getting enough rest because she needs to sleep with something", said Angela, nodding at the falcon plush.

"This is… this is my fault", said Ana. "I had her sleep with me for so long as a child, I made her dependent on body pillows and giant stuffed animals."

"Hold on, I shared a room with you once, and I don't remember…"

"She snuck into my bed after you fell asleep. She did not want to look uncool in front of you."

Angela and Ana stared at each other, until Angela couldn't hold her face straight anymore, and burst out in laughter. Ana's lip twitched, and she let herself smile.

"That's _adorable_ ", squealed Angela. "Fareeha said _my_ habits hadn't changed since then, but she's the same! When she wakes up…!" Angela glanced at Ana and her smiled faded away. "When she wakes up, you'll talk to her."

Fareeha stirred then, turning on her side and groped the air in front of her towards Angela's voice. Ana picked up the falcon plush and placed it in Fareeha's arms. The sleeping woman made a small noise of satisfaction, and rolled onto her other side, where she wasn't hanging partially off the bed.

Ana reached out apprehensively and stroked the tattoo under Fareeha's eye.

"She looks so much like you", said Angela. "I'd bet that she'd look great with long hair."

"I always thought so too. She probably never grew it out because I kept bugging her about it", said Ana.

Ana grinned mischievously, and Angela recognized the Ana that she was more familiar with, rather than the awkward mother that she had become.

Ana leaned forward and whispered into Fareeha's ear, loud enough for Angela to hear. "Hey, your angel likes her women with long hair."

"Hey!" protested Angela, glad that it was so dark that Ana couldn't see the colour on her face. Hopefully.

Ana laughed, not so loud that Angela should be concerned about the noise travelling down the hall, but she stopped abruptly right after she let out a snort. At first Angela thought the snort embarrassed Ana, but then she heard a sleepy voice.

"Mama?"

With the exception of the night of Ana and Fareeha's reunion, Fareeha had been calling Ana, "Captain Amari", despite Ana's insistence that she wasn't a captain anymore. Indeed, she refused to take any leadership position since her return.

"Shhh", said Ana. She lay down on her side, and smoothed Fareeha's hair. She said something to her in Arabic, and Angela slid back into bed as quietly as she could.

Ana took advantage of Fareeha's half-asleep state, and Angela listened as the two women exchanged words in their first language. She knew the moment Fareeha realized where she was when the bed shook and a pair of legs appeared in front of her face.

Ana started talking rapidly. It was almost surprising for Angela to listen to. Despite Ana working at Overwatch for so long, she had never become completely comfortable with English. Ana had a tendency to talk slowly and enunciate carefully. It made her sound incredibly wise, even when she was teasing people or telling jokes.

Angela heard Fareeha say something in Arabic, and then Ana's short bark of laughter. Fareeha's legs slowly retracted from Angela's field of view.

Angela relaxed, and fell asleep to the sound of animated talking, and stifled giggles.

The next morning, even though she woke up later than she usually did, Angela tiptoed out the room, so that she wouldn't wake up the two women sleeping contentedly in the bed above hers.

* * *

 **A/N: Reinhardt is a wily old fox and I love him**


	8. Chapter 8

"Angela! Help me get up!"

Fareeha tried to stand again, but fell back onto the couch.

"Serves you right", sniffed Angela. "I told you not to accept Aleks's squat challenge. She used to be an Olympic weightlifter! What did you expect?"

"Angela, please! I'm so _sore_ -y!"

Angela stared at Fareeha.

"Get it? Because I'm sore…" said Fareeha.

"I got it", interrupted Angela. "I just never heard you make a pun before."

"Really?" said Fareeha, smiling sheepishly. "I do it all the time when I speak in Arabic. My mum says she likes my puns."

"Fareeha, Ana will say she likes everything about you, even if you tell her you secretly like to dress up as a banana in your free time."

"I guess my puns aren't _ap-peel-ing_ to you, then?"

Angela released the obligatory, almost sarcastic "heh" that was socially expected for all overused puns, but immediately regretted her decision upon seeing Fareeha's face light up.

"That was _so_ bad", said Angela, trying to remedy the situation. But it was too late.

"You know, there are a lot of great things about Switzerland. The food, the people…" Fareeha winked. "And the flag is a big plus."

Angela slapped herself on the forehead.

"That's it, I'm going to lunch, and I'm leaving you here", said Angela, shrugging off her lab coat.

"No! Wait!" Fareeha rolled off the couch and used her arms to pull herself onto her shaky feet. As soon as she rose to her full height, she started to topple over in the wrong direction, away from the couch.

Angela rushed to catch Fareeha as she fell. Fareeha laughed and twisted her torso slightly to cling onto Angela's shoulders. And all of a sudden, Fareeha was too close.

Angela stiffened, feeling very light-headed. Very rarely did she have the height advantage she needed to be able to see over the top of Fareeha's head, and in her current position, she could easily bury her nose in that soft hair. Angela tried resisting doing just that, but the sweet and savoury smell that Fareeha emanated seemed to be amplified tenfold when Angela was that close to her. She tried breathing through her mouth instead, but it was a mistake. Now, she could _taste_ the scent. It coated her tongue like honey before falling to rest heavily in her stomach.

There had been many moments in the last several months where Angela _appreciated_ Fareeha's looks and scent. But never before had Angela felt the urge to _appreciate_ Fareeha in a _different_ way so strongly. It would have been so easy to release Fareeha and send her sprawling on the couch. Angela almost hummed as she pictured it. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to ignore the way her skin heated up wherever she came in contact with Fareeha.

Angela desperately pulled on Fareeha, trying to get her into a position where she would be able to support her own weight.

It was then that Ana walked into the infirmary.

"Oh my", said Ana.

Angela felt her ears burn.

"Mama!" laughed Fareeha. "Help me get to the kitchen! I can barely stand!"

"What did you do, my newborn giraffe?"

"It's Aleks's fault! She loaded me with so many weights, and I tried to make sure I didn't push myself too hard, but she was _Russian_ me."

Angela groaned but Ana didn't hold back her chortle.

"Come here, habibti", said Ana. She let Fareeha sling an arm around her neck, and supported her daughter's weight with a hand to her hip.

Fareeha stepped away, and Angela could breathe again.

During meals, it was customary for people to serve themselves. This time, Hanzo apologized profusely as he handed Angela a plate with food on it. Hanzo had grown up in an environment where he never had to cook for himself. After he joined Overwatch, he wasn't necessarily a bad cook; at least he was capable of following recipes. But in his inexperience, he underestimated the quantity of ingredients he needed to prepare, and after realizing his mistake, was forced to ration out what food he had made.

Angela stared hungrily at her meagre portions as she and the Amaris looked for open seats. Angela had been too distracted by a problem with her research the night before, and had skipped dinner trying to figure it out. And then in the morning, as she was pouring her coffee, she was struck by a possible solution, and had skipped breakfast as well.

As such, the handful of food disappeared off her plate before she could even taste it. Her stomach grumbled for more, and Angela slumped in her seat, wondering if there were any leftovers from the night before (there never were).

Fareeha and Ana were talking about something, but Angela barely registered what they were saying. Then, as Ana was speaking, Fareeha began to absentmindedly scoop half of her curry and rice onto Angela's plate.

Angela's cheeks burned. Had she been so obvious?

"Oh Fareeha, you don't have to", said Angela through the saliva that had already begun accumulating in her mouth. "You need to recover from your work-out."

"Huh?" said Fareeha, as if she had only just realized what she had done. "Oh, no, keep it. You only eat like a starved jackal when you've skipped breakfast. I'll just snack on something while I bake later. I'm thinking of making brownies. You like them, right?"

Angela nodded shyly, and mumbled a quick "thank you".

She dared to let her eyes slide to the side to where Ana sat. The old woman's elbows were propped up on the table, and she was resting her chin in her hands. She was staring, and a gigantic, toothy grin covered her face. Angela cast her eyes downwards, showing extreme interest in the piece of pork that dangled off her fork.

* * *

Angela tapped the folder on her computer screen, and opened the file that had she had temporarily named, "The Long-Term Effects of Nanotechnology on the Human Body: A Case Study". She sighed as she adjusted the axes of a couple of graphs she made.

Angela's personal supply of nanobots had finally run out. They were different than the nanobots that Overwatch used in the field. Although she had designed them, Rice Inc. had been the only company that she had a contract with to order the nanobots in bulk, as only the richest people in the world would have been able to afford the amount she used every day. In return for crediting them in her research, she was promised an endless supply, but naturally that ended when Rice Inc. was blown up. She had tried to make a deal with the other nanobot manufacturers, but none of them could afford to give her what she needed.

The main thing Angela would keep tabs on would be how up to standard her immune system was. She wondered when it would be a good time to infect herself with the latest strain of influenza, but there were too many missions coming up that would affect her data. The thing Angela knew that the world would be the most interested in was her chromosomes' telomere length. She briefly wondered about what the consequences would be if the wealthiest could buy eternal youth, but pushed the thoughts aside as she agonized over her data. She hadn't even managed to reach twenty years of experimenting on herself, and it was only a sample size of one.

Angela heard the giggling coming from behind her. As always, Fareeha was hanging out in Angela's office, and Ana was with her. As of late, Ana had a tendency to follow Fareeha around everywhere like some sort of 60-year-old puppy. Fareeha didn't seem to mind. In fact, she loved it.

Angela's eyes lingered on her computer screen as she absentmindedly turned around to reach for a brownie.

All it took was one unfocused glance at the women behind her, and Angela immediately pushed her rolling chair away from her desk.

"Ana! You promised me you'd delete that!"

Ana was scrolling through the collection of holograms and photos she had amassed over the years at Overwatch. Presently, the image of an opened-mouthed Angela asleep in her chair, with her head lolled backwards was projected over Fareeha's lap.

"I had two different versions, each with a different angle." said Ana. "I deleted the other one! Oh hold on, Fareeha, look at the next one. I got a good shot up her nose."

Fareeha gave Angela an apologetic smile, telling the doctor that she felt sorry for her, but had no intention of stopping her mother.

"Ach mein Gott!" yelped Angela as the next picture came into view.

Fareeha chuckled at the sight of Angela shoving fistfuls of chocolate cake into her mouth.

"Look at our perfect doctor, stuffing her face in the lab! That's a health hazard!" said Ana, clicking her tongue in disappointment.

"It was the middle of the night, there weren't any forks, and I was _so_ hungry!" objected Angela.

"Have I ever told you that Angela has quite the sweet tooth?" Ana said to Fareeha. "She objected to helping design my biotic rifle at first, but all it took was a few treats and I had her in my evil clutches."

"Oh, I know", said Fareeha, grinning. "The best part is that she never admits to being bribed."

"I'm all for you two bonding, but do you have to use me to do it?" sighed Angela.

"There is nothing wrong with a mother using her daughter's favourite subject to get closer to her", said Ana.

Fareeha's smile dropped immediately.

"Ok, that's enough, Mama. You don't have to say anymore", said Fareeha.

"I guess you are right", said Ana, and faked a sigh. "Oh, and I am sorry for the embarrassing photos, Angela. Let me make it up to you."

Ana tapped a few buttons on her hologram projector, and a file popped up that was labelled simply with heart emoticons.

"What are you do-… Stop!" said Fareeha, fumbling for the holopad.

Ana laughed and pushed her daughter away.

"Look Angela, this was Fareeha's first bath in a real, grown-up tub."

The projector played a video of a toddler manhandling the copious amounts of bubbles that surrounded her. She gazed up towards the camera, and babbled a few words.

Angela's forehead crinkled as she gave Fareeha her best shit-eating grin. Fareeha groaned and covered her face with her hands.

"Look how long her hair was already!" said Ana. "I will have you know that this kid was born with a full head of hair. It freaked me out at first, but look how pretty it is now. Oh, this one is my favourite."

The video was replaced by a still image of a baby on her belly.

"Look at that cute, little baby bum!"

"Mama!" Fareeha put her full effort into trying to grab the projector. She struggled with her mother, but Ana fended her off using her feet.

Ana's laughter was infectious, and Angela got a stitch in her side from laughing with her. It attracted the attention of several Overwatch members who were on their way to the infirmary anyway to sample the snacks Ana and Fareeha had worked on together.

"Hanzo!" said Ana. "Come closer, young man, I have a present for you."

"Young man?" said Hanzo. Hanzo exchanged a curious glance with Jesse.

Ana searched through her files until she pulled up a video of a teenage Jesse chasing Fareeha, who had stolen his hat.

"I see you have always had that ridiculous hat", said Hanzo. "And that belt buckle. But I do like that clean-shaven look. Or maybe you could not grow facial hair yet?"

"Of course I could grow facial hair!" said Jesse. "It just happened to be the day we had to take pictures for the UN and I wanted to clean up…" Ana flicked to the next image. "Ana! When did you take _that_!" It was Jesse's turn to scramble for the projector.

"Do you have any pictures of Mei?" said an intrigued Aleksandra.

"Oh, please Ana, don't… ok that's not so bad", said MeiLing.

"This was during the first ping pong tournament we had. We never had any more tournaments after that because there was no contest for Mei", said Ana.

"Table tennis", corrected MeiLing.

"I used to think that ping pong was a sissy sport", said Jesse. "But I couldn't return anything Mei sent at me. It just hit my paddle and went flying away."

"I don't have the strength or speed to play at a high level", said MeiLing. "But spin is something I understand."

"Mei's almost the same age in the hologram as she is now", said Hana. "I want to see what Reinhardt looked like when he was young!"

"Do you have that picture when Winston joined Overwatch?" said Lena. "I wanna see that again!"

The team gathered around Ana, as she scrolled through her collection.

"Omigawd!" laughed Hana. "Torbjörn looks exactly the same! Were you just born old, Torby?"

None of the original members of Overwatch were spared. Laughter rang through the hallways of the watchpoint that day, and nobody complained about putting off dinner for a little longer. Only the wisest of the new members worried that they could be next to join Ana's collection.


	9. Chapter 9

As usual, Angela typed furiously away at her computer. It was approaching evening and her office still had the usual people hanging around. A few people lay on the floor, tapping at their tablets, and if they didn't have one, flipping between the pages of books or magazines while they nibbled on baked treats. With the couch mostly occupied, Hana found space on it in what could not have been a comfortable position. She dangled off the couch with an armrest supporting her lower back, as she played with a handheld console upside-down. Hana was blowing up a piece of gum, and Angela heard it pop when someone entered the infirmary.

"Hey Angela."

Angela looked up at the armour-clad woman standing before her, cradling her helmet under her arm.

"Yes, Fareeha?"

"How's your French?"

"It's passable."

"I just remembered that I never thanked you for helping me when I hit my head so hard I saw five of you."

"Oh, you don't have to thank m-"

" _Mercy_ beaucoup."

Angela rolled her eyes, but Jesse rolled to his feet and slapped Fareeha on her back before giving her a thumbs up.

"Don't encourage her, Jesse!" said Angela.

"You have no sense of humour", said Jesse. He turned to Fareeha. "Hey, you should visit America one day. The land of the _F'ree-ha_ and the home of the brave."

Jesse raised his hand for a high-five, and Fareeha didn't leave him hanging.

"How do I put up with you?" sighed Hanzo.

"Anyway, before I go, I wanted to give you this. It caught my eye when I went into town", said Fareeha.

Fareeha was going on a week-long mission to escort and help distribute government aid to a refugee camp with Ana, Lena, and Winston. The chances of combat were low, but Fareeha wasn't going to leave her Raptora suit behind for anything.

Fareeha took Angela's hand, and placed something in her palm.

Angela opened her hand and saw an interesting-looking, blue hair elastic. Even under the harsh lights of the infirmary, the hair elastic seemed to sparkle as if it had been embedded with crushed diamonds. She ran her thumb over the soft surface of the material, and locked her eyes with Fareeha's.

"This is beautiful", said Angela. "Thank you."

A small "you're welcome" found its way past Fareeha's sheepish smile.

Angela took down her ponytail, and tied it up again with the new hair elastic.

"It suits you", croaked Fareeha. She cleared her throat and pulled on her helmet, but not before Angela spotted the extra colour that blossomed on Fareeha's high cheekbones.

Unbeknownst to Angela, four people in the infirmary were making eye contact with each other.

When Fareeha left for the hangar, MeiLing tapped Angela on the shoulder.

"If you don't mind, can you take a look at my data?"

"Sure", said Angela, who stood at MeiLing's prompt.

She followed MeiLing out of the infirmary, but when it came to turn towards the lab, MeiLing took Angela's arm and pulled her towards the sleeping quarters.

"What's going on?" said Angela.

"I left my tablet in our room", said MeiLing.

Even if MeiLing wasn't a horrible liar, it still would have been obvious that MeiLing hadn't told the truth when she pushed Angela into Hanzo and Jesse's room.

They were joined shortly by Jesse, Hanzo, and Aleksandra, who shut the door behind them. Angela eyed them suspiciously, feeling very much like a cornered animal.

"That's a cute hair elastic", said Jesse. "Really top of the line. Must be the latest in hair technology."

"What's happening?" said Angela, as the four people moved to surround her from all sides.

"That's not the first gift Fareeha has given you, is it?" said Aleksandra.

"What are you getting at?" said Angela.

"I noticed you using that new, shiny hairbrush recently", said MeiLing.

"She also gave her a new pack of hair pins when Angela lost all of hers", said Hanzo.

"They're so easy to lose…" said Angela.

"Fareeha also got her that headband so Angela's bangs don't get in the way when she exercises", said Aleksandra.

Jesse laughed. "That woman is _obsessed_ with your hair, isn't she?"

"Sure, but Fareeha's liked my hair since she was a child", said Angela.

"She's also had the biggest crush on you since she was a child", said Jesse.

Angela froze and stared incredulously at Jesse.

" _What_ ", said Angela.

"She told me", said Jesse. "She got mighty excited, saying something about how she was going to marry you when she grew up. She only told Big Bro Jesse, but everybody on the base knew about her infatuation with you anyway."

"Just like how everybody on the base knows now", said Hanzo.

"What." said Angela.

"Oh come on, Angela, she's _so_ obvious" said MeiLing. "Giving you all those little gifts! She's so sweet; I get more than my recommended daily intake of sugar just watching her."

"And she always makes these excuses to hang out in your office, even when the rest of us aren't around", said Aleksandra.

"Tea time would not be as delicious if Fareeha did not have a person to bake for", said Hanzo.

"Ok, ok, I get it", said Angela. "Yes, I am aware that Fareeha is interested in me. I'd be blind not to see that woman blush from a mile away."

"Then what are you waiting for?" exclaimed Jesse. Angela shifted a little to dodge the arms Jesse had just flung into the air. The man had a tendency to speak with his hands, especially when he was excited. It was usually pretty fun watching such an animated person talk, but it meant that Angela knew to give him his space. "Don't tell me you were serious about the not dating a co-worker thing. Surely you can see that it's working all fine and dandy for McHanzo here."

" _What_ did you just call yourself?" said Angela.

"Celebrity power couple nicknames are all the rage, even among common folk nowadays, don't you know?" said Jesse. Hanzo just folded his arms and shrugged when Angela looked at him.

"Oooo, what would Angela and Fareeha be?" said MeiLing. "Angeeha? Fargela?"

"They both sound terrible", said Angela, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"You think there is a problem with co-workers dating?" asked Hanzo. "Are you suggesting that my relationship with Jesse is problematic?"

Although she didn't like doing it, Angela was used to standing up to other people. However, even though she stood almost as tall as Hanzo, his confrontational glare sent a shiver down her spine. He hadn't been set to take over an ancient clan of assassins for nothing.

"Yes, are you saying there's a problem with me and Mei?" said Aleksandra. She took an aggressive step towards Angela, and Angela gulped as she stared up at the gargantuan woman looming over her.

"No, no, it's nothing like that", mumbled Angela, feeling the back of her neck grow hot. "I'm happy for all of you. Jesse and Mei have been my best friends for a long time, and I'm glad they've found such wonderful partners."

"Then what is the problem?" said Hanzo, dropping his threatening image by raising an eyebrow quizzically.

"Who says I even like Fareeha that way?" said Angela. "Just because she's attracted to me doesn't mean I'm attracted to her. I'm used to being fawned over by people."

"But you haven't left the base to look for "nightly entertainment" with those people this whole time", said Jesse. "Something's changed, hasn't it?"

"No, I'm just too busy for sex right now", said Angela. "And that's not what I meant. I mean, she's not the first person whose life I've saved that's fallen in love with me. I'm not obligated to like them back."

"I am sure you get a lot of those, but that does not mean you do not like her", said Aleksandra. "I have seen the way you look at Fareeha. Like a hungry wolf. And if she were not as dense as I know she is, she would have picked up on it a long time ago."

"I…" Angela trailed off. The two couples stared at her, and Angela wished they would say anything. She would gladly have them tease or berate her, if it meant that it would let her get away with saying nothing.

As it turned out, Angela was one of the most patient people in the room, and Jesse couldn't help but crack a smile.

"You like her. You loooooove her", said Jesse in a sing-song voice.

"No I don't!" said Angela. "Ok, I admit to the sexual attraction". She scowled at Jesse's smug face. "But I'm not in love with Fareeha!" Angela cleared her throat and proceeded to talk in a more calm and matter-of-fact manner. "In any case, what you think is love is really the release of a series of chemicals in the brain that exists to encourage animals to procreate and pass on their genes to the next generation. For example, psychological studies have shown that a chemical called phenylethylamine is released when people make prolonged eye-contact, making them feel like they are in love. These studies were conducted on strangers. Love is nothing more than glorified feelings of attachment that you could feel towards anyone, and there is no reason for me to purposefully engage in it."

"Oh…" said Jesse.

Angela squared her shoulders and smiled haughtily at the way Jesse, Hanzo, and Aleksandra deflated.

"Oh, don't give me that dog poop", snapped MeiLing. Everybody stared at MeiLing for the uncharacteristically sharp tone she used. "Guys, don't go about accepting everything Angela says just because she's a doctor! She's just fishing for excuses! She knows perfectly well that even if love is a feeling made by chemicals, so is every other feeling and emotion we have! For some reason, only love gets this kind of attention, even though anger, sadness, and happiness are all caused by these "insignificant" chemicals. You know it's reasonable to feel fear when you enter a warzone, right? You trust your body when you get that feeling of hunger, right? Well, that's also based on a bunch of chemicals. _Everything_ is a bunch of chemicals!"

Angela gaped at MeiLing, knowing that her explanation wasn't going to work with another biologist in the room. She had been so close to getting away with it.

"Angela is such a good liar sometimes, I'm glad you were here to call out her bullshit", said Jesse.

Aleksandra proudly pulled MeiLing to her side, and draped an arm over her shoulders.

"Well", said Angela, putting her hands on her hips. "I still stand by the fact that I'm only sexually attracted to Fareeha. Sexual attraction does not equal love."

"There is hope!" exclaimed Jesse.

"She's already there", said MeiLing. "You can't have sexual attraction without romantic attachment!"

"What?" said Aleksandra. "Of course you can. I wanted to have sex with you the moment I met you, but I did not fall in love with you until much later."

The look of hurt on MeiLing's face was undeniable, and she tried to push Aleksandra away from her.

"But… you… asked about my research", said MeiLing. "Nobody wants to know about my research unless…"

"Unless they're trying to get closer to you", said Aleksandra. "But it doesn't have to be for romantic reasons…"

"Aleks!" interrupted Jesse, wincing for MeiLing.

Aleksandra looked as if she didn't know what she did wrong, but still took a step away from MeiLing to give her space.

"Now, now, while I do agree with Aleks that love and sex can exist separately, there's no denying that while they're both good on their own, they're much better together", said Jesse.

"I agree", said Hanzo.

Angela shifted uncomfortably at the awkwardness of the situation, wondering if MeiLing and Aleksandra would leave the room to sort out their new little problem. When they didn't, Hanzo decided to end the silence by bringing the attention back to Angela.

"Anyway, Angela, we are not here to poke fun at you. Fareeha is a great person who can make you happy."

"That's right", said Aleksandra, grateful for the distraction. "She is one of my best friends. I trust her with my life when we exercise and go into combat together."

"And she makes delicious food", said MeiLing.

"She is extremely respectful", said Hanzo curtly.

"There's so many great things about Fareeha!" said Jesse. "Where do I start? She told me she thought my outfit was cool when we were kids. When you have a problem, she knows when to give advice and when to stay quiet so you can just vent. She's a damn good shot…" Jesse extended his index finger and thumb in the form of a gun, and made a little "pew" noise. "Damn." Jesse sighed wistfully. "I might be falling in love with her myself."

This startled Angela.

"Don't you dare!" she snapped before she could catch herself. She groaned, and rubbed her temples at the impending headache due to the way the two couples leered at her.

It was to Angela's great relief when the conversation was interrupted by somebody pounding on the door so hard, it shook in its frame. She took advantage of her friends' alarmed looks and paraded past them, unlocking the door, and opening it to reveal an enormous man.

"Reinhardt!" said Angela. "What did we tell you about your relationship with doors?"

"I haven't broken any since that night I almost killed Fareeha", sniffed Reinhardt indignantly. "And I used two knuckles to knock, as promised", he said, demonstrating his technique with his fist against the empty air.

Reinhardt surveyed the people in the room. Jesse, Hanzo, and Aleksandra looked stoic, but his gaze fixed on MeiLing's quivering bottom lip.

"What's going on here?" said Reinhardt. "You're not breaking the rules of the bet, are you?"

Angela's eyes immediately narrowed.

"What bet?" asked Angela.

When nobody responded, Angela straightened her back, marched up to MeiLing, and stared her down.

"Mei? What is Reinhardt talking about?"

"Mei! Don't!" whispered Jesse.

"Shush, Jesse!" commanded Angela in tone that would not be trifled with. She waited patiently as a drop of sweat trailed its way down MeiLing's forehead, knowing it wouldn't be long until she broke.

"Ana's been taking bets", squeaked MeiLing. Aleksandra sighed, and shook her head.

"Ok, ok, here's what's happening", said Jesse, pushing MeiLing aside so that she wouldn't have to suffer under Angela's icy glare anymore. "The team's been placing bets, you see. About when you and Fareeha will get together. When the round is over, the money we bet stays in the pot, and the next cycle of betting begins. The pot's gotten quite large now, with the two of you taking your sweet ass time."

"I knew it!" roared Reinhardt. "You're trying to cheat by hurrying them along! Probably going to take consecutive weeks until they're official and then splitting the winnings!"

"Reinhardt, keep your voice down!" rushed Jesse, worried about Reinhardt's voice carrying down the hall, which would alert their other teammates to their unethical act.

"You disgust me! Get out of my sight!" thundered Reinhardt.

Jesse and MeiLing slinked out of the room as quickly as they could. Hanzo and Aleksandra followed at a leisurely pace, backs straight, and raising defiant stares at Reinhardt, doing their best to convey the message that they had not been intimidated by Reinhardt's display.

When they were gone, Reinhardt smiled softly at Angela, and made a beckoning motion with his finger. Angela hesitated to follow him out the room, but remembered a time when she was seventeen where she had refused to leave her lab for several days in a row, feeling that she was at the edge of a breakthrough. When Ana couldn't convince her to leave the lab to break her fast, Reinhardt took over by simply flinging Angela over his shoulder as she kicked and screamed at him to let her get back to her work.

Begrudgingly, Angela followed Reinhardt to his room, which had been padded with noise-cancelling material to keep loud snores from keeping everybody in the sleeping quarters awake all night.

Although the room was shared between three people – four with the occasional MeiLing – Angela was sucker punched by Fareeha's lingering scent as if she were there, sending Angela's stomach into doing summersaults. She stood in the corner furthest away from Fareeha's bed, where she could see the falcon plush sitting on the edge, positioned in a way where it seemed to be watching her. Had Fareeha forgotten it, or intentionally left it behind? If it were the latter, how did she sleep when she went on overnight missions?

Reinhardt closed the door behind him, and sat on his gigantic bed. He patted the spot next to him, until Angela rolled her eyes like an exasperated teenager and took a seat next to him.

" _Don't let what the others said get to you_ " opened Reinhardt in German.

When Angela had first joined Overwatch, she had to work a little to understand Reinhardt's German. She had spent the earlier years of her childhood in a relatively remote village in Switzerland, complete with its own unique dialect. After the death of her parents, she had immersed herself in the medical and scientific communities, focusing her language efforts on learning English. She had only been practicing her standard Swiss German for a few months before she met Reinhardt, and soon found her dialect morphing to his standard German because there was nobody else to practice with. However, despite absorbing the different grammar and accent, Angela never forgot the distinctly Swiss words she had learned as a child.

" _While I love Fareeha dearly as a daughter, and I know nothing would make her happier than having her feelings reciprocated, I don't want you to rush anything. Love is like crafting a fine suit of armour. If you try to rush the process, you'll end up with a shoddy product._ "

Angela listened, knowing that she was one of the few people who knew this side of Reinhardt. Many of her teammates were bilingual, and those that she knew well acted differently when they spoke in their native tongues. Reinhardt was surprisingly more quiet and docile when he spoke in German. Or perhaps, he only talked like that when he gave her the rare piece of advice. For such a loud man who was so enthusiastic about doing battle, he was also very quiet in meetings. Angela always thought he just didn't care about details as long as he got to fight eventually.

" _But I also know that you tend to do everything in your power to keep yourself from falling in love_ ", said Reinhardt.

Angela didn't confirm or deny this, and instead chose to cross her arms over her chest.

" _I listened to your conversation with the four rascals through the door_ ", continued Reinhardt. " _What other reasons have you been using to avoid admitting your feelings about Fareeha to yourself_?"

Angela thought about how she felt when she saw Fareeha in a dress in the bar, without knowing it was her. And then she remembered the way she had mentally conjured an image of a twelve-year-old Fareeha in her place.

Reinhardt regarded the silent woman, and when he spoke, it was as if he read her mind.

" _Are you afraid of what people will think when they find out you knew Fareeha as a child?_ "

Angela deliberately avoided eye-contact with Reinhardt.

" _Do you remember how she asked you to marry her when she was thirteen?_ "

This actually procured Angela's interest, and she finally responded.

" _Jesse said the same thing. I actually can't recall it in the slightest. Fareeha must have made it up, or…_ "

" _She didn't_ ", interrupted Reinhardt. " _I heard it from Ana, who watched the whole thing. But I didn't expect you to remember_."

" _Don't be ridiculous_ ", said Angela. " _I remember everything_."

"Süße, _you overestimate your own ability sometimes. You're only human. Sometimes you only remember things that are interesting, like your work, or things that are important to you, like emotional moments._ "

" _So you're saying_ …"

" _Like Mei said back there, you're just making up excuses. You didn't remember Fareeha asking you to marry her because you thought she was joking. Of course you weren't attracted to her at the time, and you aren't attracted to Fareeha as a child now_."

Angela wanted to say something, but felt that even if she tried, Reinhardt would interrupt her again. Plus, what he was saying wasn't wrong.

" _The fact that you knew Fareeha as a child doesn't make it strange. In fact, it gives more depth to your relationship. I bet Jesse would give a lot to see what Hanzo was like as a child._ "

Angela deflated, knowing she had finally run out superficial excuses to reject Fareeha. But with any luck, Reinhardt wouldn't figure out the real reason why she didn't want to be involved with anyone…

" _I want you to take your time until you're ready_ ", repeated Reinhardt. " _But I am confident that when you are ready for a relationship, you will choose Fareeha_."

This wasn't what Angela had expected Reinhardt to say, given the uncanny ability to read her mind that he had used thus far.

" _Why is that?_ "

" _I have known you for a long time,_ Süße."

There it was again. _Süße_. A term of endearment used by Germans for children. Angela didn't like being treated like a child, given that she was thirty-eight years old. But at the same time, she rather liked the fatherly tone Reinhardt said it with.

" _You have spent the two decades I've known you without ever falling in love. And the reason for this is because you're afraid to lose another person you love._ "

Angela stiffened. So he _did_ know why she never let herself get close to anybody…

" _It's perfectly reasonable of course, given what happened to your parents, and our line of work_ ", continued Reinhardt. " _But I honestly think it's worth the risk_."

" _Why..._ " Angela breathed in deeply, uncomfortable with the knowledge that Reinhardt knew so much about her. " _Why do you think I'll choose Fareeha?_ "

" _Because you trust her more than anybody else. And without her, you would be even more closed than you are now. I doubt you'd even have any friends_."

Angela gaped at Reinhardt. What an incredibly rude thing to say!

Reinhardt disregarded Angela's scandalized look, and continued.

" _Do you remember when you first joined Overwatch? You had just become head of surgery at a major hospital at such a tender age, and that was after you served as a medic. I can't imagine what kind of horrors you saw when you should have been playing with computers and frolicking outside with friends. But the point is that you became an adult before it was your time. You were so completely self-sufficient; you didn't feel like you needed anybody's help. You were always alone in your lab. I was so excited to have someone to talk to in German, but you never responded to me. You didn't talk to anybody. That is, until you became friends with Fareeha._ _Then, all of a sudden, you were laughing and playing as if you had never been to war. She gave you a piece of your childhood back, and I have no doubt that if she didn't, you'd be a very different person today._ "

This was an angle Angela had never thought of before. She had never thought that she had benefited from her relationship with Fareeha.

" _I got along with Jesse too_ ", said Angela. " _Why is Fareeha special?_ "

" _I am sure Jesse would have been able to open your shell as well. But with the way he only visited a few times a year, Fareeha was the one who got the job done._ "

Angela wondered then what it would have meant if Reinhardt were right. If Jesse had been a part of Overwatch instead of Blackwatch, would she have fallen in love with him?

" _Fareeha was also slightly different from Jesse. I remember how shook up you were when Amélie killed Gérard. In this day and age, anything that had once been considered normal is precious. That's what Fareeha was to you, a symbol of a normal person. Someone who had never shot a gun, never seen anybody die, never had to decide if a human's life was worth more than an omnic's._ "

" _Ok, I understand how being friends with Fareeha when we were young helped me as a person. But why can't I maintain that kind of relationship with her now? Can't we just stay friends?_ "

Reinhardt smiled, and patted Angela on the back. He only used two fingers to do it, as he was aware of how much strength he had.

" _Of course you can. I'm not saying that it's inevitable that you'll fall in love with her. First you have to work out some personal issues, and that's only if you decide that love is worth the risk. Personally, I think you should give it a try, but in the end, it's up to you, since it does open you to the potential of more pain. But if you do decide to make yourself vulnerable, Fareeha is an excellent candidate for your affections. I just think you two would be very compatible with each other._ "

Angela's shoulders shuddered when she sighed, and Reinhardt finally stopped talking to let Angela think. Everything Reinhardt said was so spot on, she wondered if he knew her better than she did. But how had he gotten to know her so well? He wasn't as straightforward as she thought he was, having more sides to him than simply the walking, breathing, yelling German stereotype.

Angela's mind continued to wander between Reinhardt and Fareeha, until she was suddenly struck by a thought.

" _Reinhardt, you knew Fareeha would beat me in chess_."

" _Of course I did. What did you think it was? A lucky guess? Don't forget that I taught her several lessons before she got a private tutor._ "

" _You also know Ana very well, don't you?_ "

" _One of my best friends, she is._ "

" _She's as good at strategy as Fareeha is, isn't she? Except that she has a better understanding of people._ "

" _I suppose so_."

" _Mei suggested that Ana started the bet about when Fareeha and I would become a couple. Do you think she expected someone to try to skew things in their favour?_ "

A laugh rumbled deep in Reinhardt's chest.

" _I have no doubt that she did_. _Jesse's quite predictable. Probably roped in Mei when she otherwise wouldn't have done anything._ "

" _But why?_ "

" _One reason is possibly that since she already sees you as a daughter, it wouldn't hurt to make it official. Jesse was right in saying that you two are taking your time, and Ana might have thought she'd have to give you a little push. As to the other reason… I think you already know as well as I_ …"

Angela finally let herself smile.

" _She's bored._ "

" _Exactly_."

Reinhardt and Angela laughed together, shaking their heads over the antics of a woman who was too mischievous for her own good. Angela was glad that Fareeha had not inherited this trait from her mother.

When Angela didn't say anything else, Reinhardt opened the door to grant Angela her freedom. When he did, Jesse stumbled into the room. Evidently, he had been eavesdropping.

"I'm sorry", said Jesse as he steadied himself. "I didn't mean to get you yelled at."

"What do you mean?" said Angela.

"You guys sounded so angry when you were talking to each other."

Angela laughed, and patted her poor, naïve friend on the shoulder.

"Why do Americans think German sounds angry?"

Angela slung her arm around Jesse's shoulders as they walked out of the room together. As she walked past Reinhardt, she heard him say something in German, half to her, and half to himself.

" _I've been "Uncle Reinhardt" to you kids for so long. Everybody calls Ana, "Mama Bear". When do I get promoted to Papa?_ "

* * *

 **A/N:** _ **Merci beaucoup**_ **= "thanks a lot". As a Canadian anglophone, I am imbued with a mastery of Franglais. I wish Angela or Fareeha were French, so I could ruin everyone's lives with it.**


	10. Chapter 10

After Fareeha and her unit returned from their mission, the team split again. Half of the team had been sent with Ana to try and track down Soldier: 76, a man once known as Jack Morrison. According to Ana, he had been busy minimizing the effects of Talon's activities. The other half wasn't necessary for the mission, and didn't have much to do. So they flew down to Antarctica to restore the watchpoint there, where MeiLing would be able to collect the data that had continued to accumulate since the scientists at the base perished. MeiLing had been anxious about returning to the place where she had been stuck in cryostasis for so long, but this time there was an end-date for their stay, and Lena would pick them up before anything happened to them.

Winston, Torbjörn, and Angela were in charge of figuring out the technical details, while Fareeha, Aleksandra, and Mako provided the muscle required to remove the bodies of MeiLing's past colleagues from their cryogenic chambers and bury them in the unyielding ice outdoors. Smaller members, like Lúcio, Hana, and Jamison wormed between walls, tinkering with faulty wiring and performing other miscellaneous tasks.

When the building was running comfortably again, Angela found herself with a lot of free time on her hands. She had left her experimental mice behind in Gibraltar, and didn't have enough data to start working on another scientific paper.

Angled rolled about her office lazily on her chair, feeling like she was missing something.

A small part of her felt like taking another blood sample just because there was nothing better to do. Tests so far had shown that her innate immune system had not been negatively affected by years of nanobot use, but her adaptive immune system had. Angela planned to keep tracking her adaptive immune system's slow recovery until it was equivalent to the reference point she had established before she had begun the experiment.

Half of Angela's brainpower was devoted to mulling over what Reinhardt had said to her the previous week. She had thought about love before, but had never considered it to be necessary. After all, what could be said about the importance of the emotion if she was able to keep herself from feeling it for her entire life? How much of love was a choice? If people couldn't control when they fell in love, could it be that Angela was incapable of feeling it at all? If she did decide to give love a chance, she didn't think there would be a difference if she chose somebody inside or outside of Overwatch. Yes, it would hurt if her partner were a teammate killed in action, but Angela was also at risk of dying prematurely, and she suspected her death would hurt her partner just as much. And a partner that wasn't part of the organization could still become a target because of her. Amélie had been a prime example of that.

For the hundredth time, Angela wondered whether all she felt towards Fareeha was sexual attraction, like she said, or something more. They were friends for sure, and close ones at that. How many afternoons had they spent together, talking about everything and nothing? What was the line between friendship and romantic inclination? It couldn't be sex, as the concept of friends with benefits wasn't unheard of. Angela could see herself finding happiness with Fareeha, but the greater the high, the more painful the fall. If Fareeha died before her time…

Angela had never stopped repeating these questions in her head, and coupled with the lack of internet access, she felt like she was starting to go insane. But then it turned out, that the part of Angela that would settle her decision wouldn't be her brain or her heart, but her stomach.

That last part of her mind that wasn't focused on her relationship with Fareeha or taking blood samples for fun finally figured out what was missing. It was the afternoon, after Angela had already taken her nap, and there was no Fareeha in her office, or the treats that she always brought with her. It hadn't occurred to Angela right away, as she had gotten used to Fareeha's absence while she was away on her escort mission. But when Angela realized that Fareeha was in the same building, it felt incredibly wrong to not have Fareeha at her side.

So, Angela went looking for Fareeha.

Angela headed to the gym, where Aleksandra was working at a machine.

"Have you seen Fareeha?" said Angela.

"I have not", said Aleksandra. "But when you find her, can you tell her to join me? It is chilly in here, and a second person's body heat would make it more comfortable."

Angela considered telling Aleksandra that she could just put a layer on top of the thin tank top and shorts that she wore, but she couldn't be bothered.

She went to the kitchen, where Hana had stopped by to grab a bag of chips.

"Have you seen Fareeha?" said Angela.

Hana's mouth was already crammed with a mouthful of Doritos, so she answered by shaking her head.

Angela climbed the tall radio tower, where MeiLing was watching the data, collected by their weather balloon, as it came in.

"Have you seen Fareeha?" said Angela.

"She's not with you?" said MeiLing, eyes darting over numbers that wouldn't mean anything until she could compare it to her database. "Have you checked her room?"

This hadn't occurred to Angela, as Fareeha wasn't one to hide away unless there was something that troubled her.

"Hey", said MeiLing as Angela turned to leave. "I'm sorry about what I did last week. I thought I was helping, but I didn't consider your feelings. I won't meddle again, unless you want me to."

"Thank you, Mei", said Angela. "I don't hold you to it. I know Jesse can be… persuasive."

"Aleks is sorry too. Fareeha is her closest friend on the base, and she just wants her to be happy. Aleks isn't one to apologize though, so I'm doing it for her."

"Well, I appreciate it."

There were so few people at the base that each person got their own room. Since they didn't need to keep doors unlocked for roommates, a few people, like Hana, reverted to old habits of locking their doors. Fareeha wasn't one of these people, and Angela quietly opened the door to Fareeha's room, and peeked inside.

The room was completely dark, which wasn't strange given that it was winter and there were significantly more hours of darkness than light. Angela would have turned around if the bed wasn't visible directly from where she stood. Through the light that streamed in from the hallway, Angela could see a large lump under the many covers on Fareeha's bed.

"Fareeha?" said Angela.

At first, there was no reply. But then she heard an utterly miserable, muffled noise.

Angela turned on the lights to the room, and closed the door behind her.

"Fareeha, are you alright?"

There was that muffled noise again, and Angela wasn't sure if Fareeha was underneath all those blankets, or if she had hidden a human-sized hamster in her bed.

"Fareeha, can you look at me?"

Finally, Fareeha poked her head from underneath covers, but only just enough for Angela to see her eyes and nose.

Before Fareeha could withdraw like a frightened tortoise, Angela placed her hand gently on Fareeha's forehead.

"You're not running a temperature…" started Angela.

"I wish I was", said Fareeha, glaring at Angela through blood-shot eyes. "It's so damn cold here. Can't we turn up the heat?"

Angela laughed, finally understanding what was going on. She sat down on the side of Fareeha's bed, perfectly comfortable in her turtleneck sweater.

"You'd be warmer if you got up and moved around", said Angela.

"I don't want to get up", grumbled Fareeha like a spoiled child. "It's so cold, I couldn't sleep all night. Whatever night is. It's so dark all the time; it just drains all the energy out of me."

"I'll warm up some soup for you", said Angela. "Maybe you'll feel better after that."

Fareeha muttered something, and then retreated back under the covers. Angela wondered how she didn't suffocate in there until she saw a wide straw poking out from where Fareeha's head had been.

As Angela waited around the microwave for Fareeha's canned soup to heat up, it occurred to her that if Fareeha never left her room due to a combination of the cold and sleep deprivation, she wouldn't be able to craft her afternoon treats anymore. With two weeks until Lena was scheduled to pick them up, this alarmed Angela more than the time Jesse thought it would be funny to wake her up one morning, when they were teenagers, by pouring a bowl of cold water on her face.

Simply turning up the heaters was out of the question. They had rationed out fuel to keep the facility running, and MeiLing would have a fit if they used more than was necessary. She wouldn't be able to do anything about the low temperatures, but at least there was something she could do to help Fareeha sleep.

Angela shuffled to Fareeha's room as quickly as she could without spilling the soup. When she got back, Fareeha accepted the bowl of soup gratefully. She sat up in bed, and Angela noticed she was wearing a thick, white sweater. Angela watched her carefully as she ate.

When Fareeha was done, Angela took the bowl from Fareeha and placed it on the floor. Then, she slipped under the covers without a word of warning.

"You're letting the heat out!" complained Fareeha.

"I'm trying to help you, you dork", said Angela.

To Angela's annoyance, Fareeha's falcon plush was wedged between them, so she pulled it out and threw it off the bed.

Fareeha protested at first, until Angela moved and slid into the falcon plush's spot. She pulled Fareeha flush against her body, and pressed the side of Fareeha's head against her chest. The sound of a person's heartbeat had a calming effect on Fareeha. Angela knew this from their long history of being friends.

 _Friends_ , thought Angela again, as she felt Fareeha's body go from tensed to slack.

"Warmer?" asked Angela.

"Mm", said Fareeha, who hugged Angela close.

"Try to get in a little nap before dinner", said Angela, who couldn't decide which she liked more: the feeling of her arms around Fareeha, or Fareeha's arms around her.

Fareeha responded with, slow, even breaths; she had already fallen asleep.

They had napped together before, but that was as children. This felt completely different. The scientist tried to understand the aching she felt in her chest, which she wouldn't have called unpleasant. _It's just the oxytocin_ , thought Angela, as the desire to get even closer to Fareeha spread, even though there wasn't an inch of space between them. She buried her nose in Fareeha's hair, and inhaled to her heart's content. This was something she could get used to.

Eventually, Angela entered a state of drowsiness, where she would have been content to doze off like Fareeha, but was unable to because she had already taken a nap. It was a state of being where Angela let her thoughts prance around in her head unhindered. Like following sticks and pebbles down a river that split off into multiple streams, Angela focused on an idea that got stuck at this point of divergence, and nudged it down a particular path. There were bound to be more twists and turns down this stream, but the question of whether or not the journey would be worth it no longer seemed to matter.

* * *

Two weeks later, every member of Overwatch was back at the watchpoint in Gibraltar, and most significantly, had not gained another member.

"I told you he would not come back", Ana had said. "Jack has a plan and he wants to carry it out without Overwatch. Yes, Winston, I did try saying that. He said if he came back he would not be Soldier:76 anymore, he would be Strike Commander Jack Morrison again, and he does not want that."

Angela was up all night cleaning out the compartments her mice lived in. Lena had stayed behind at Gibraltar while everybody was out, ready to play the chaperone when necessary. As such, Angela had entrusted her to make sure the mice wouldn't starve, but Lena had overfed them consistently, and some of the old food had gotten mouldy. Angela wanted to express her vexation at Lena so she would be more careful next time, but couldn't find Lena anywhere. The pilot seemed to disappear more and more frequently as of late, and nobody had a clue where she went.

It was almost midnight when Angela finished cleaning up, and when she headed back to her room, she noticed the rays of light that found their way from underneath the door. When she came to stand outside the entrance, she could hear Fareeha's voice.

"Mama!" was all Angela could make out, amongst the Arabic that followed.

Angela pushed open the door, revealing the two Amari women sitting on the floor in front of Ana and Angela's bunk bed. Both looked up at Angela as she entered.

Ana was holding a bottle, and both women's feet were bare.

"Henna", said Ana, waving the bottle. "Just for fun. Think of it as akin to painting each other's nails… Fareeha! For the last time, will you stop squirming?"

"You're taking so long!" whined Fareeha. "It's midnight, and I just want to go to bed!"

"I have only been at it for fifteen minutes!" retorted Ana. "We would be done by now if you did not take four hours to do mine!"

Angela took a moment to admire the work Fareeha had done on Ana's feet. An impossibly complicated image of swirls and flourishes covered Ana's skin, from the tip of her toes to her shins. The picture was undoubtedly that of water, some parts depicting harsh rapids, in other parts, calm flows. The pattern on her left foot was so perfectly symmetrical to that on her right that Satya would have wept tears of joy if she saw it.

"Wow, that looks amazing", said Angela.

"I just copied a design", said Fareeha.

"Nonsense. Fareeha has an eye for detail", said Ana proudly.

"Not to mention a steady hand", said Angela. "I've been having her assist me in the infirmary since our nanobots ran out. Her stitches have gotten so good that I let her do Hana's when that kid sliced her hand open the other day." Angela turned to address Fareeha directly. "Maybe you can start studying to become a doctor, and then you won't have to fight anymore."

"Nah, not interested", said Fareeha. Her gaze was fixed on Ana's hand as she applied the paste on her ankle, as if glaring at it would make the whole process go faster. Ana's hand moved swiftly, and had managed to create a sparrow, which although simple, was still a pretty, little thing. No doubt, Ana simplified the design so Fareeha wouldn't have to wait as long for it to finish.

"Are you done yet?" said Fareeha with a yawn.

"Almost…" Ana sprinkled her work with liquid from a bowl she kept nearby. "Ok, that is good enough", said Ana. "Seriously, this kid…" muttered Ana, slapping Fareeha's rear when she stood and stretched.

"Hey!" yelped Fareeha, covering her bottom with her hands to shield herself from further attacks. "Also, don't call me a kid. I'm thirty-three years old!"

Ana ignored this statement, and turned towards Angela.

"Angela, would you like me to do you as well?"

"Sure!"

"Hands or feet?" Ana flipped through the pages of a book filled with henna designs. "I was thinking that flowers might suit you well…" Ana shifted her eyes to Fareeha, and Angela followed her line of sight.

Fareeha was noticeably flustered. She mumbled something, and headed towards the exit.

"Make sure you let it dry; you will make a mess of your sheets otherwise!" called Ana as Fareeha closed the door behind her. "I am betting ten dollars on a smudged tattoo tomorrow."

"What was that about?" said Angela.

"Oh, nothing really. A flower design can be innocent enough. It is also a common pattern to give brides the night before their wedding", said Ana.

Ana looked up from the petal she had had started to paint on Angela's foot, left eye twinkling and a grin on her face, expecting to see red on Angela's cheeks. Instead, she found a thoughtful look.

"If all goes well, maybe you'll do this again for me sometime", murmured Angela.

It was almost satisfying to see the surprise that pushed Ana's eyebrows higher than Angela had ever seen them. It was revenge for all the embarrassing photos she had shown Fareeha.

"You… have you finally considered… you… my Fareeha?" stuttered Ana.

Angela gave a tiny nod, and Ana almost dropped her bottle of henna as she threw her arms around Angela.

" _Finally_ " exclaimed Ana. "I might live to see grandchildren, after all", she said with a sniff.

"Woah now, that's a discussion for another time", said Angela hastily.

"Sorry, sorry, I did not mean to pressure you… again", said Ana, muttering the last word under her breath. "But why are you telling me this now? You have not spoken to Fareeha yet?"

"Not yet", said Angela. "I meant to ask you for some help, actually."

"Help? Have you _seen_ how Fareeha acts around you? You do not need any help from me."

"It's not that I'm worried that she'll reject me. I've thought about it, and I want to make this perfect. A while ago, Fareeha told me that one of her guilty pleasures is watching romance movies, so she might have certain… expectations. I don't have a romantic bone in my body, so I was hoping you could give me some tips."

"So considerate! I knew you would be a good partner for my Fareeha" said Ana, wiping a tear from under her good eye. "Well, Fareeha has never told me any details about her love life, even though I have pestered her endlessly about it. But yes, I do think I can help you."


	11. Chapter 11

The door closed with a soft click. Then, just as a precautionary measure, Angela turned the lock. It could be said that this was objectively one of the least significant missions she had ever worked on, but it felt like one of the most important.

"Mei agreed to spend the night with Aleks", said Ana.

"Perfect", said Angela.

"Did you get it?"

"That shouldn't even be a question."

Angela climbed onto one of the two mattresses that Ana had laid on the floor. When she was settled comfortably among the pillows propped against the wall, she pulled out a sheet of paper that had been folded up in her pocket.

"The list of Fareeha's favourite movies, in no particular order."

Ana pulled out a laptop and searched for the first title. She scanned the list as she waited for the movie to download.

"Have you heard of any of these?" said Ana.

"No. I don't remember when the last time I watched a movie was, and romance isn't a genre I really care for. To be honest, I was surprised that most of these are in English."

"Well, you know, Hollywood. Anyway, it is done downloading."

"Ok, I'm ready." Angela pulled out a notepad and pen.

The movie started by introducing the main couple.

 _Attractive leads… check_ , thought Angela. _Alright, both of them look successful, dedicated to their jobs. I bet it's going to be implied that they're lonely… yup there's the cat…_

Angela yawned. It was still early in the night, so they could probably fit in about two movies before Angela's normal bedtime.

 _Yup, two movies. This one is the first. Then one more. And then we'll do it again until I know exactly what Fareeha likes…_

"Good morning, Angela."

"Wha-?"

Angela snorted a little as she sat up. She had been lying face-down, and there was a dark spot of drool on her pillow. Sunlight shone through the window and straight into Angela's bleary eyes.

"Morning? How? It felt like I just blinked…"

"You fell asleep. You lasted about ten minutes, I think", said Ana.

"Ok, well, can you summarize what I missed?"

"Um… The female lead is a ruthless CEO of a big bank, and the male lead runs a non-profit organization. They meet at a wedding, where they act as maid of honour and best man to their friends… And after that, um… hilarity ensues."

"Sounds like you didn't last much longer than me."

"Ok fine!" exclaimed Ana. "Let me start by saying that I love Fareeha to bits, but my daughter has the _worst_ taste in movies. Let's get Athena to see if any of these movies have a real plot…"

Angela stretched and despite hearing her back crack, felt incredibly refreshed.

"That was one of the best night's sleep I've had in a long time", said Angela. "But maybe we should try this again during the day. If we're going to do that, we'll need to distract Fareeha somehow."

"Well, we are running out of supplies. I will send Fareeha into town to restock and tell her to take Hana. Hana is so picky; she will slow down Fareeha enough to give us a few hours."

Ana's plan worked as intended. With Fareeha out of the way, Angela and Ana managed to get through two of Fareeha's favourite movies. Angela had to pinch herself during the slower paced scenes, and might have zoned out if she didn't have to constantly keep Ana from getting up for a hundredth cup of tea.

"I do not know how much more I can take", said Ana after the second movie, which had featured an unlikely romance between an omnic and a human. "Have you even learned anything from this?"

"Well, I have a few guesses about what Fareeha likes about these movies, but I'm uncomfortable making conclusions with just a sample size of two."

"Stop talking like a scientist. What I have learned from these movies is that there is no story without passion, and there is nothing further from passion than the cold logic of science."

"Excuse me! Science is nothing without the passionate pursuit of knowledge! But fine. Something that was in common between the two movies is that grand gesture at the end that smooths over whatever problem the couples face. All that omnic had to do was shoot up a bunch of fireworks that spelled out "I love you" at the Olympics, and the whole taboo of dating an omnic went away. I don't really care if other people are into omnics, but personally I prefer my sexual partners to be more fleshy…"

"Thank you, I do not need to hear it", said Ana. "I think we should still get the basics down, just in case. You know, like flowers and chocolate. For the first date, you should take her somewhere where she can show off. And then I can cook up Fareeha's favourite meal for after you are done spilling your guts to her. But what should we do about this grand gesture?"

"I have no idea, but I don't want to just copy something from one of the movies. Why don't we ask Jesse? He seems to the romantic type."

A thump on the door snapped Angela's back straight. It was unclear whether someone was asking for entry or if someone had thrown a frisbee at the door.

"Who is it?" called Ana. She and Angela tossed the mattresses on the floor back onto the beds, cleaning up the evidence of their secrecy.

"It's me", said Fareeha through the door. "I got the stuff you wanted."

A pillow landed on MeiLing's bunk just as Ana opened the door.

In Angela's experience, it was normal to try and take in all the groceries at once upon returning home. But even she resigned herself to multiple trips if the volume was too much. Fareeha was not the type of person to yield to edible goods. Both of her arms were loaded with so many tote bags, it looked like she had wings made of the sturdy cloth material. What she couldn't fit around her arms, she had hung around her neck, effectively turning her into a human vending machine.

Angela did her best to stifle a giggle at how ridiculous Fareeha looked, before offering help.

"No, I'm good", said Fareeha. "I dropped off the main load in the pantry and Hana is already unpacking everything. This bag is yours, Mama."

Ana's personal requests were dropped unceremoniously onto the floor, but Angela swooped upon it before Ana could start to bend.

"Aha", said Angela, removing a pack of cigarettes from Ana's bag. "Confiscated." She shushed Ana's protests. "And Fareeha. I wish you'd stop buying these for Ana. You know they're not good for her."

"But-", started Fareeha.

"She is a good girl", huffed Ana. She walked up behind Angela, making a move as if to pick up the bag Angela had left on the floor. Then she suddenly straightened and swung her arm, knocking the pack of cigarettes out of Angela's hand, and caught it mid-air.

Ana started to say a sarcastic, self-congratulatory remark, when Fareeha took an aggressive step towards her mother. She was stopped only by the sound of glass jars clanging against each other. To Angela, Fareeha looked very much like a protective mother bird.

"Calm down, I did not hurt her", said Ana. "Here, as an apology, you can have a cigarette."

"Bleh, I don't want one", said Fareeha. "They taste terrible."

"One day your taste buds will grow up", said Ana. She slid the pack of cigarettes into her pocket. "Angela, stop rubbing your hand like you are in pain. You will set my daughter on me."

"I can't help it, I bruise like a peach", said Angela, although the spot Ana smacked had already stopped tingling. "I really wish you would stop smoking. It's a disgusting habit."

"Oh, let an old woman do as she wants before she gets blown up on the battlefield", said Ana.

"Mama, do _not_ talk like that again. You're not going anywhere", said Fareeha sternly. "Angela, here", she said, trying to change the topic. "This yellow bag is yours." She jerked her head to indicate a bag that hung off her neck.

Angela made the mistake of looking into Fareeha's eyes, which provoked the jackrabbits living in her chest to start kicking at her heart.

 _What's wrong with me? She's the same as always_ , thought Angela. Still, she felt her cheeks get warmer with every step she took towards Fareeha. _Maybe it's because I'm going to tell her soon…_

Fareeha bowed her head to give Angela easier access to the bag around her neck. Her soft hair fell forward like a curtain, and Angela stared the exposed nape of her neck.

Angela let her hand "accidentally" brush by Fareeha's ear, senses heightened as her fingertips revelled in the brief moment of contact it had with the soft flesh of the lobe.

"Hey! I'm ticklish there!" giggled Fareeha girlishly. Angela's medically-trained eyes could see the beginning of a blush through Fareeha's dark skin.

Absurdly, Angela began to salivate. She swallowed thickly.

"Hurry up, you _lovebirds_ ", said Ana.

Fareeha's blush had spread to the tips of her ears now, and Angela wasn't in too different a state. It took iron control to not dally any further, and slip the handles of the yellow tote bag off Fareeha's head.

"There's a little extra something I threw in for you", said Fareeha.

Angela peaked at the groceries and saw a triangular prism-shaped box inside. Toblerone was a brand of chocolate she had adored since she was a child.

Angela raised her head to thank Fareeha properly just in time to see Fareeha wink.

"Anandamide is a neurotransmitter found naturally in chocolate that binds to THC receptors and provokes a sense of bliss not dissimilar to that of a kiss's", blurted Angela. She had to bite her tongue to keep herself from continuing.

 _What is wrong with me?_ thought Angela again.

"Uh… huh…" said Fareeha, looking adorably confused. "You're welcome? I'd best deliver the rest of these." She started down the hallway, and Angela got a glimpse of Fareeha knocking on Lena's door using her forehead, just as Ana closed their door.

Ana marched over and smacked the back of Angela's head.

"It is a good thing that Fareeha is as slow as you are dumb", said Ana. "What was the point of you asking me to help you if you are going to spout stuff like that?"

"It just slipped out!" exclaimed Angela. "This isn't like me! I'm usually as cool as a cucumber when I hit on people. But I wasn't even trying to hit on her!"

"Thank goodness that is not how you flirt. I would feel very sorry for you."

Angela unwrapped her chocolate with shaky hands, and calmed herself by biting off a chunk.

* * *

Angela regretted asking Jesse for ideas for a grand, romantic gesture. Not just because of the teasing that followed, but because of how extremely unhelpful he was.

"For last Valentine's Day, Hanzo stood in front of an old barn while I shot bullets in the shape of a heart around him."

"You thought it would be romantic to shoot at your boyfriend?" exclaimed Angela incredulously.

"No, no it was Hanzo's romantic gesture for me. All his idea. He wanted to show just how much he trusted me. Damn, he's so perfect, I'm getting all emotional." Jesse wiped a tear from his eye.

"Well, I'm not pointing a gun anywhere near Fareeha", said Angela.

"So, you plannin' something big?" said Jesse. "If you ask me, you don't need to do any of that. Just grab her by the waist and plant a big one on her." He puckered his lips and made exaggerated kissing sounds.

"Stop that", said Angela.

"My god, it's so perfect. Fareeha likes climbing trees because she's like a big bird. How did that rhyme go again?

Fareeha and Angela, sitting in a tree.

K-I-S-S-I-N-G.

That's all I remember. You guys are so cute when you fly together. Oh wow, you're actual lovebirds! Invite me after you've built your nest and your eggs begin to hatch, alright?"

"Jesse, please!" Angela watched Jesse annoyingly as he slapped his knee and guffawed.

Angela heard a soft thump, and somebody turned the doorknob to Jesse's room just in time for Reinhardt to burst in without breaking the door.

"Angela!" cried Reinhardt.

"Shhhh", said Ana, hurrying in behind Reinhardt and gently closing the door.

"Ana told me your plans, and I had to congratulate you!" yelled Reinhardt.

Ana jumped on Reinhardt's back and clasped her hands over Reinhardt's mouth. The two struggled amidst Jesse's laughter until Reinhardt finally calmed and plopped down on the floor.

"Don't worry, I have sworn to secrecy", said Reinhardt. Ana held a finger over her lips, and Reinhardt lowered his voice even more. "I have heard of your predicament, and I have a plan. When I was a child, I enjoyed eating… what are they called in English, Angela? Kinder Überraschung? Those hollow chocolate eggs with a toy inside them?"

"Kinder surprise eggs?" said Angela. "I loved them as a kid too."

"Those are the ones!" said Reinhardt.

"Toys inside chocolate eggs, aimed at children?" said Jesse. "Sounds like a choking hazard to me."

"You missed out", said Angela. "Anyway, Reinhardt. What about them?"

"I have a friend in Stuttgart who owns a chocolate factory. He owes me a big favour, so I was thinking you could give Fareeha a custom-made egg", said Reinhardt.

"What kind of toy would I put inside?" said Angela.

"Toy? Didn't you hear me? I said he owes me a _big_ _favour_. We're going to put you inside", said Reinhardt.

"This is supposed to be for Fareeha, not Angela", laughed Ana.

"Fareeha likes chocolate too!" said Jesse. "Granted, not as much as Angela, but it's not a bad idea."

"I like it!" said Angela.

"You're drooling, Süße", said Reinhardt. He wiped the corner of Angela's mouth with a gigantic thumb. Angela swatted his hand away.

"I know how to get inside the egg without suffocating during the delivery", said Angela. "When can we start?"


	12. Chapter 12

Sweaty fingers grasped at the rocky ledge, seemingly determined to fail their owner. After taking a moment to calculate the risk of falling, Angela reached behind her for the bag of chalk attached to her harness. Unfortunately, calculations mean little in situations so prone to be rife with human error, and Angela yelped as she lost contact with the stone wall.

Heights in general were nothing to be scared of, as long as Angela was in control. She could fly in her Valkyrie suit at any distance from the ground without breaking a sweat. But here, with nothing keeping her from falling except for the harness around her hips, even though Angela barely descended at all before coming to a jerky stop, her heart hammered painfully behind her ribs.

As she dangled mid-air, Angela looked down to see Fareeha casually sitting back in her harness, supporting Angela's weight with her own.

"You can do it! You're almost at the top!" cheered Fareeha.

 _How did this happen?_ thought Angela bitterly, although she knew full well how every action she had planned led to this miserable moment.

* * *

Angela had been slightly anxious that morning, thinking of the day ahead. Angela was thirty-eight years old and all she had to show for it was an uncountable number of one-night stands. A teenager in love would have had a better idea of how to interact with their crush. She knew she should try to act normal, but she couldn't remember what that was like. At the very least, she had time to figure it out, as the first part of the plan was to just ask Fareeha on an outing that was strictly platonic.

Underneath her pillow, there was a speech Angela had written, intended for the big reveal. There were two pages. Double-sided. Single-spaced.

Angela prepared herself mentally before leaving her room by smoothing the wrinkles out of her clothes, and fluffing her bangs, but Ana had to be a nuisance.

"I want you to take this before I forget to give it to you", said Ana.

Angela accepted the shiny gift bag from her crush's mother. She fiddled with the opening, but knew something was up when Ana couldn't contain her laughter, and burst before Angela could see what was inside.

"Really, Ana? Dental dams and finger condoms?"

"You do not know how well it will go tonight! I want you kids to stay safe."

"For goodness' sake, I'm a doctor!"

"Maybe, but do you bother to get an assortment of fruit-flavoured dental dams? I even threw in a pack that glows in the dark!"

Ana's laughter seemed to follow Angela through the halls as she headed towards the gym.

 _Concentrate_ , thought Angela, slapping her cheeks as she walked. Stopping in front of the doors to the gym, Angela rehearsed the causal request she had planned for Fareeha, and only proceeded when she felt like she was ready.

She might have been ready to face Fareeha in her normal state, but Angela halted in her tracks upon seeing muscles bulging under the strain of lifting a barbell that must have weighed heavier than Angela herself. The woman was perfectly sculpted, as if she belonged in a museum, encased by glass so people would keep their grubby hands off of her (only available to be touched by the most qualified curator, of course). Every time Fareeha exhaled, Angela could clearly see her abdominal muscles through her shirt. But one of Angela's favourite things about Fareeha was that despite the power that rested in her body, she handled everyday objects with the upmost care, as if they were delicate trinkets.

Sweat enriched Fareeha's skin, making it shine as if she had been oiled. Her bangs stuck to her forehead, and if Angela were in that condition, she would have felt embarrassed of how gross and sticky she might have looked. But Angela watched Fareeha with nothing but rose-tinted glasses, and all of a sudden her mouth felt incredibly dry. From a distance she heard Aleksandra encourage Fareeha for a last push, and Fareeha obeyed, grunting in the effort. To anybody else, it wasn't a sexual noise, but that fact didn't stop Angela from thinking about the other noises she might be able to tease from Fareeha's throat.

Angela became so engrossed in her fantasies, it was startling to hear Fareeha's voice, shaped into real words rather than the incoherent screams that had been playing in her head.

"Angela! Hi! I've never seen you here so early, you normally exercise in the evening", said Fareeha, who had somehow materialized in front of her.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm here because I… huh?" Angela chased the fake images of Fareeha out of her head, and tried to remember the words she had practiced. What were they again? Just as the line started to come back to her, she remembered Ana's gift, and how eager Angela was to try them out on Fareeha.

 _Damn it, Ana!_ cursed Angela.

"Are you alright?" said Fareeha. "Your face is all red. Are you sick?"

Fareeha wiped off her hand on her shorts, and brought it to Angela's forehead, which didn't help Angela's ripe tomato syndrome.

"You seem a little hot, maybe you should go back to bed", said Fareeha.

"Oh, um, no, I'm fine", said Angela. "I… Jesse bet twenty dollars that I wouldn't be able to eat a whole ghost pepper, and well, he was right, ha ha." Angela wanted to slap herself for the mechanical laughter that she had tacked to the end of her sentence.

To the side, Angela could see Aleksandra smirking in their direction as she put away the weights from Fareeha's barbell.

"I'll be fine", repeated Angela, waving away the concern on Fareeha's face. "Anyway, I-" Angela's head blanked again.

 _Just be casual_ , thought Angela.

"I eh uh, want to have fun with you…" said Angela.

"What? I'm sorry, but I couldn't understand that part where you mumbled", said Fareeha.

"I mean, I want to get high with you…"

"Well, you have to use that medical marijuana somehow", interrupted Aleksandra with a laugh.

"No!" said Angela.

"You mean you want to go flying?" said Fareeha, cocking her head.

"No! What I meant is that I've always wanted to try rock climbing and it's just a lovely day, perfect t-shirt weather really but it's ok if you want to wear less, I mean there's a new food truck that's supposed to have great shawarma that we could have for lunch, and there's a great view of stars on the mountain at night I mean that's not… that is I would like it if you went rock climbing with me."

Fareeha was speechless, and Aleksandra started to clap extremely slowly. Angela felt like she really had eaten a ghost pepper, and it felt like steam was rushing out of her ears.

"So… rock climbing?" said Fareeha, cautious about continuing in case Angela had more to say. "Yeah, I could take you. We'd have to rent the equipment though. Oh, Aleks, do you want to come too?"

"She can't!" gasped Angela.

Just because this excursion wasn't a date didn't mean Angela wanted half the base to tag along.

"Huh? Why not?" said Fareeha.

"I have a date with Mei", said Aleksandra calmly.

" _Thank you_ " said Angela. "If you really want… I mean we _do_ have a lot of medical marijuana that nobody's ever touched…"

Aleksandra laughed and shook her head. "Thank you doctor, but I am not interested. I keep my body clean."

Angela sighed her relief.

"So Fareeha, would you like to go now?"

"Sure, just let me get changed… Mama? I didn't see you there!"

Angela turned around just as the lens of a camera disappeared from the gap between the double doors behind her.

"Ana!" bellowed Angela, barging through the exit, and catching sight of an old woman sprinting down the hall. "Ana, get back here!"

Fareeha appeared behind Angela just as she took flight after her old captain.

"Mama! Do you want to go rock climbing with us?" called Fareeha.

* * *

The main purpose of the outing was to get Fareeha out of the base so the chocolate egg could be delivered. Additionally, Angela was supposed to put Fareeha in a good mood, and Ana had decided that rock climbing would serve the purpose well. It wasn't rock climbing per se that was perfect, but the fact that Angela had never done it before. Fareeha's competitive nature meant that she would be given plenty of opportunities to gloat if she wanted to. What Ana failed to consider was Angela's similar competitive streak.

Angela watched jealously after Fareeha chose a considerably more challenging wall to scale, and conquered it with ease.

"I didn't even know that was possible", muttered Angela, when Fareeha got to a segment that had Fareeha inching her way across the underside of a ledge that was essentially parallel to the ground below.

Fareeha's fingers were somehow able to find their way into the shallowest cracks and crevices and stay there. When Fareeha first explained the strategy of rock climbing to Angela, she told her that she should rely on her legs to do most of the work. Fareeha followed this advice for the most part, but there were some parts where she had no choice but to hoist herself up using purely her upper body. At one point, she dangled off the angled wall using nothing but two fingers on her left hand. At another, she jumped from one foothold to another with all the agility and confidence of a mountain goat. Fareeha didn't need Angela to catch her even once, but she assured her climbing partner that it was because she wasn't doing any particularly difficult walls (this only annoyed Angela even further).

"How do you do it?" said Angela after she belayed Fareeha back down to the ground.

"At your level, it's more about confidence really", said Fareeha, rubbing her chalky hands together. "Or should I say, you just have to be _boulder_."

Angela groaned, but it was hard not to smile with Fareeha. There was something about the way Fareeha grinned that made it impossible to stay in a bad mood. It wasn't particularly special, as she smiled with much more reserve than her mother. Most of the time, she used her smiles politely, with closed lips. Perhaps it was because Fareeha seldomly smiled around anyone except for the people she was close with. Fortunately, that meant there was no shortage for Angela. Fareeha had one tooth that had been chipped in a fist fight when she was younger, but Angela rather liked it that way. It gave her more character.

"It's getting late", said Fareeha. Her eyes were fixed on Angela's hair, admiring the way the setting sun's rays bounced off it. "Do you want to visit the shawarma cart? It's too bad the line was so long during lunchtime, huh?"

"No! We have to eat at the base!" exclaimed Angela.

"But didn't you want to get shawarma earlier?"

"I did, but it seems that my ghrelin levels are low and my leptin levels are high", said Angela quickly.

"What?"

"I'm not hungry" sighed Angela.

"Ok, but I still want one. Genji's cooking tonight, and well he tries, but he doesn't have a mouth or any taste buds."

"You're wrong! Ana's cooking tonight!"

"But according to the schedule…"

"Genji's sick, so Ana agreed to cover for him", interrupted Angela.

"Genji can get sick?"

"Yes", lied Angela. "Trust me, I'm his physician."

"Alright then."

Angela removed her harness and hopped on the spot, trying to dislodge an uncomfortable wedgie without embarrassing herself.

She had wanted to stay a little longer for it to get dark enough to see the stars, but she knew to be cautious around a hungry Fareeha. A famished Fareeha was as grumpy as a sleep-deprived one.

"I'm surprised you didn't make fun of me", said Angela, as she and Fareeha returned their climbing equipment.

"Why would I do that?" responded Fareeha.

"There's no end to it when it comes to chess. "Still haven't beaten me once, huh?" you'd always say", said Angela.

Angela and Fareeha started walking back to the base, close enough for Angela's shoulder to occasionally jostle into Fareeha's side. From time-to-time, their hands brushed by each other, and Angela wondered if Fareeha would be ok with her closing her fingers over Fareeha's like a Venus flytrap.

"Oh come on, cut me some _slack_." Fareeha winked but one look at Angela's face made it clear that she wasn't impressed by her rock climbing joke. She cleared her throat before continuing. "It's only fun to rub it in if both parties are on a similar skill level. And besides, that's not how you encourage a potential belaying partner for upcoming years… I mean!" Fareeha's cheeks darkened and Angela wondered what kind of a future she saw for them. "I mean, the main competition in rock climbing is with yourself. There's nothing I like more than the feeling of improvement."

"I'd rather be perfect the first time", said Angela.

"I like to think about it my way because you won't notice the ceiling until you hit it. Which I never have. Speaking of which, that's the reason why I like flying so much."

"So it's having control over your freedom that you like, then?" said Angela.

"Something like that. I like it when the factor that has the biggest impact on my performance is me", said Fareeha.

Angela felt Fareeha's knuckles swish past hers again.

"I like flying because I've always loved the sky", said Angela.

Fareeha craned her neck upwards to observe the syrupy reds and oranges of the setting sun.

"Yeah, it's pretty now, but I like it best when it's blue and cloudless", said Angela. "It's so much simpler, you know? Well, I guess Mei would disagree. But I used to wish I could go there just to get away from what was happening on the ground."

"Oh."

Angela felt Fareeha's skin touch the back of her hand, but this time it wasn't an accident. Fareeha's fingertips stayed there, asking for more access. Permission was granted swiftly. Angela pressed their palms together, and despite prior expectations, it wasn't embarrassing at all. She didn't even blush.

The crag Angela and Fareeha had gone to for rock climbing was closer to the base than it was to the city. They didn't have to walk past ugly concrete or houses full of people who might want to stop them for an autograph.

The trail they walked on was worn, rocky, and winding, which slowed their journey back. Angela would have preferred a straight road to her destination, but could still admit that the extra time to hike was worthwhile. According to MeiLing, Gibraltar had lost much of its biodiversity as human civilization infringed into what had once been complete wilderness. The first that fell were native trees, for logging purposes. Later, humans repopulated the area with tree plantations, consisting primarily of species foreign to the area. In doing so, they also brought invasive species that further hurt the local flora, and introducing other environmental problems.

Angela recognized a few flowers as she and Fareeha walked. She wasn't much of a plant enthusiast, but one of the few books that the small Overwatch team kept at the base included an encyclopaedia of plants, and Angela sometimes skimmed the pages out of boredom. To Angela's right she spotted a patch of flowers that oddly enough, grew so closely together that their stems wove together, so entwined, she might have mistaken them for one plant if it weren't for the highly distinct flowers. There was one plant that had pretty, violet flowers. _Iberis gibraltarica_ , she thought. Among them were white blooms. Angela had to think hard about it, but she decided to identify them as _Silene tomentosa_. And finally, there were cheery, yellow flowers that had to be _Senecio angulatus_ _._

She couldn't remember which flowers were native and which ones were invasive. But they were all pleasing to the eye. She understood theoretically why MeiLing spoke passionately about invasive species, but Angela thought that like it or not, they were here to stay, and were just as much inhabitants on the promontory as native species were.

The late afternoon air buzzed with the commotion of unseen birds and the chirping of insects. The forest smelled crisp and fresh compared to the sterile environment she spent most of her time in. Despite that, Angela leaned into Fareeha's side, preferring the scent of familiarity.

There wasn't another human in sight.

It was peaceful.

Angela and Fareeha stayed in comfortable silence, even slowing their pace when the tallest buildings of the watchpoint came into view.

The silence was broken when a breeze came their way and Fareeha said, "Wow, something really smells like chocolate."

The hairs on the back of Angela's neck stood on alert as she was reminded that she was in the middle of an incredibly important mission.

"Really? I can't smell anything at all", said Angela.

Fareeha's nostrils flared. "Oh! I can smell dinner! Mama's making my favourite!"

"My god, do you have the nose of a bloodhound or something?" blurted Angela.

Fareeha was momentarily surprised, but soon cracked a grin.

"Yup, and the thing that smells the strongest right now is the sweaty, little monkey next to me."

"Sweaty…! Well you're not much better, are you?"

Fareeha sniffed herself. "Oh, you're right. Well, gotta get the _Pharah-mones_ out somehow, right?"

"Oh, I'll get the _Pharah-moans_ out of you, alright", mumbled Angela.

"What was that?"

"Oh, I was just saying that I'd like to fly a bit before dinner. What do you say?"

"Sounds fun."

"Ok. Meet you at the hangar in fifteen minutes?"

"Why not now…? Well, sure. I guess I'll see if Mama needs help with dinner."

 _Just as Ana predicted_ , thought Angela as she watched Fareeha walk away.

As soon as Fareeha was out of sight, Angela made a beeline for the showers. Normally, Angela showered after her work-outs. Fareeha was the type to shower late at night, carefully picking out a time when she would be the only person in the communal showers. Angela found this odd, thinking that if she had the body Fareeha did, she would be unashamed in flaunting it.

Angela hadn't planned on showering originally. She and Ana thought that the less opportunity Fareeha had to prematurely find the chocolate egg stashed away in the hangar, the better. But remembering Fareeha's comments about her smell, Angela couldn't help but take the risk.

Angela didn't have a change of clothes after she was clean. However, she knew that her teammates often hung around in the common room before dinner, so she clutched her sweaty clothes to her front and made a mad dash for her room, leaving a trail of wet footprints behind. She made it to the relative privacy of her room without anybody seeing except for Athena.

She had never gotten ready so fast in her life.

There was no time for make-up, but Ana had insisted that Fareeha liked her better without it anyway. Similarly, the clothes Ana had picked out for her was a simple, everyday outfit. Angela would have thought that a sexy dress would deliver the message of her intent much better, but Ana said that that wasn't the person Fareeha had fallen in love with, and wouldn't have appreciated the notion of Angela making herself uncomfortable to impress her.

As Angela ran her hairdryer, she picked up an earpiece that she had left on her pillow.

"Ana?" said Angela.

"You are five minutes behind schedule", came Ana's whisper through the earpiece.

"Yeah yeah, I'm sorry", said Angela. "You kept Fareeha busy, right?"

"Of course."

"Ok, you can send her to the hangar now."

"You mean, "I can walk her to the hangar now", right?"

"What? The plan was to - "

"Change of plans", said Ana. "Did you really think I was going to help you this much without a reward?"

"What reward?"

"Do not worry, Angela. You will not even notice me and Mr. Canon, hiding in the bushes."

"You mean your camera?" exclaimed Angela. "Oh no, not this time…"

"Oh, sorry, I could not hear you. Fareeha is coming back from the washroom now", said Ana.

"Ana…"

"Fareeha!" Angela heard Ana address her daughter. "As you go to meet with Angela, let me tell you about this new recipe I came up with…"

Angela used some choice curses for Ana, but knew there was no room for debate this far into the plan.

"Fine. Just tell me when Fareeha finds the egg", said Angela.

Angela wasn't sure if Ana heard her or not, as she started talking quite loudly to Fareeha in Arabic.

She sighed, and almost walked out of her room before realizing she had forgotten something. At the foot of her bed was a bouquet of roses that Ana had left for her. They had purchased it just because it seemed to be a staple in romantic scenes even though Angela had never seen the appeal in them. Yes, she found them beautiful and they smelled alright, but after receiving flowers, it became a struggle against time to keep them from withering.

But as Angela picked up the roses, and gently touched a petal with a thumb, she felt a great deal of affection for the cliché. She thought back to how nervous she had been earlier in the day, despite knowing that Fareeha reciprocated her feelings. She was about to start on something new and exciting, and perhaps this was what flowers were meant to represent all along, rather than love in general.

The thought made Angela swell like a balloon. She groped under her pillow for the speech for Fareeha that she had written and memorized. She took one last, long look at it, ripped it in half, and walked out the door. Where before she had been anxious about the possibility of embarrassing herself, Angela now felt nothing but confidence.

Her destination wasn't far. She only had to walk a couple of paces to the room next-door.

She knocked, and as she waited, Angela tied up her hair.

The door opened to an unhappy-looking Satya.

"You only need to knock once", said Satya sternly.

"But I did?" said Angela.

"You knocked one series of knocks", corrected Satya. "All you need is to rap on the door once. You rapped thrice."

"Oh, I'm sorry", said Angela.

"Enough. Come in quickly and finish your business."

Angela didn't need to be told that twice. She stepped into Satya's room and closed the door behind her.

Unlike Angela's room, where she left her dirty laundry wherever she pleased, there wasn't a thing out of its place in Satya's room. It wasn't that hard, given that the only thing Angela could see was the single bed in the centre of the room that Satya had exchanged the original bunk beds for. Satya's personal belongings were nowhere to be seen. There was; however, something very different that Angela didn't have, and that was a large oval of blue light that hummed faintly.

"Thank you so much for this", said Angela.

"It is a fair exchange for the maintenance you provide for my prosthetic", said Satya. "Now, go do whatever you need to do. I would like to close this teleporter as soon as possible. I believe I did not align it perfectly with the wall."

"Just to be clear, gas molecules pass through the teleporter as well, am I correct?" said Angela.

"You are", said Satya.

Then, Ana's voice came through Angela's earpiece.

"The falcon has found the egg!" whispered Ana. "Let me turn up the microphone sensitivity so you can hear her."

Angela heard Fareeha say her name and something else in Arabic, maybe wondering where Angela was, but Ana responded in English, and Fareeha naturally switched languages.

"Wow, it smells like a chocolate factory in here", said Fareeha. "Look, Mama! The gigantic box has my name on it!"

"I wonder what it could be", said Ana. "Shall we open it and find out?"

Angela took this as her cue. She turned to Satya, gave her a nod, and stepped through the teleporter.

Angela had taken Satya's teleporters before, but it was no less disorienting this time. The physical feeling of doing so felt no different than walking through a door, but it was still strange when the visual cues didn't line up. It didn't help that the space she entered was barely large enough to accommodate her.

Angela could now hear Fareeha's muffled voice through the chocolate, but she still had to rely on the earpiece to get an idea of what was happening outside.

"It's… a giant egg?" said Fareeha. "Where did this come from? Who sent this to me? Mama, when was my birthday again?"

"Who knows?" said Ana. "Would you like to try a piece?"

"Do you think it's safe? Mystery chocolate from an unknown source?" said Fareeha.

"I am sure that it is fine. You should start by breaking it… Wait!"

Angela heard an "oof", although she didn't know which woman it came from.

"A kick like that could cause… serious human injury… if uh, if the egg is solid. Let me try first", said Ana.

There was a thud on the walls of the chocolate egg, and with the light coming from the teleporter, Angela could see cracks forming on the egg walls.

"It seems hollow!" said Ana. "But only use about that much force, alright?"

"Ok?" said Fareeha.

Using what were gentle, but many strikes, Fareeha made weak points in various spots in the chocolate shell.

Electricity flowed through Angela's fingertips, and she clutched the bouquet of roses behind her back.

Finally, the walls of the chocolate egg came crumbling down all at once, revealing Angela waist-up.

"Angela!?" exclaimed Fareeha.

A different Angela at a different time would have laughed at the way Fareeha leapt backwards in surprise.

Instead, she looked Fareeha straight in the eye. The speech she had written had been timed to last fifteen minutes, and Angela had practiced it so much, it took effort to swallow it down.

"I like you", said Angela simply.

"What!" said Fareeha.

Fareeha spun around, looking for her mother. Ana hadn't done as promised, and hadn't even tried to hide. She stood in the open, camera blatantly out.

Angela looked at Ana out of curiosity, although she would have preferred to keep watching the humorous expressions on Fareeha's face. Ana was clearly not impressed with the way Angela ended up telling Fareeha how she felt.

When Fareeha kept looking between Angela and Ana, and her panicked expression didn't go away, Angela felt a moment of uncertainty.

Had she been wrong to be so confident that Fareeha would gleefully respond in kind? Had it been too unrealistic to expect that at this point they would be walking off into the proverbial sunset together? Everybody seemed to know that Fareeha was in love with Angela, but what if they were wrong?

Then it struck Angela.

She had always assumed that Fareeha thought Angela didn't reciprocate her feelings, and so never acted on them. But upon reflection, this didn't match Fareeha's character at all. Fareeha was a person of action, and would have asked Angela out a long time ago once she realized she was in love with Angela. Maybe Fareeha wasn't in love with her after all… no… with the way Fareeha looked at her, this was impossible.

What if Fareeha had her own doubts about entering a relationship, just like Angela had?

No. No way. It couldn't be, could it?

"Fareeha?" Angela carefully stepped out of the egg, and took one of Fareeha's hands. "Fareeha are you ok?"

Fareeha finally stopped looking at her mother, and stared wide-eyed at Angela. She sputtered some sort of gibberish, and swung her head vigorously up and down.

Colour returned to Angela's cheeks, which she hadn't even realized were drained of blood.

She smiled in relief. Fareeha must have just been at a loss of words from the surprise of finding an Angela in her food.

"I like you. A lot.", repeated Angela. "Do you…" she lifted Fareeha's hand and pressed her lips to it. "…like me?"

"I…!" Fareeha paused and it looked like she was chewing on the inside of her cheek. "I do! I l-l-like…" stuttered Fareeha.

Angela's attention was caught by Ana, who was waving her free hand wildly behind Fareeha's back. Ana made a motion as if she were smelling flowers.

Angela nodded. She let go of Fareeha's hand, and presented the bouquet, which she had been hiding behind her back, with both hands.

"Go out with me, Fareeha."

Fareeha reached out, and Angela released her hold, thinking Fareeha had the bouquet. She was wrong, and the flowers fell from Fareeha's fingertips to their feet.

Angela stated to bend to pick up the bouquet, but froze when she saw the look on Fareeha's face.

She was crying.

"I'm sorry, I…!" said Fareeha.

Fareeha dashed away then, leaving a stunned Ana and Angela behind.

It felt like Fareeha ran off with a rope tied to her heart, pulling it out of Angela's mouth when she fled.

Angela's chin fell to her chest, and she stared at the flowers on the floor.


	13. Chapter 13

When Ana and Fareeha's relationship had been unsteady, Angela's patience had been stretched extremely thin while waiting for them to reconcile. She had thought it would be so easy to solve their problem if one woman just reached out to the other and started a conversation. But it turned out that open conversation is a responsibility that falls on both participants, and Angela was starting to understand what Ana had to go though. Fareeha was an expert at avoiding Angela, and had managed to do so for several days. Fareeha stopped sleeping in her room, didn't eat her meals with the group anymore, and Angela was sure she had simply packed up and left except that Athena assured her that Fareeha spent all her time at the base. She begged Athena to tell her where Fareeha was hiding, or at least watch the camera recordings to get a sense of Fareeha's movements, but the A.I. refused.

Ana wasn't having an easy time with Fareeha either. If it hadn't been so obvious that she and Angela had been in cahoots with each other, she might have been able to get valuable information from her daughter. Instead, she came back to her and Angela's shared room, giving Angela the evil eye as if Fareeha's silent treatment was all Angela's fault. No doubt, it frustrated both women that they didn't know Fareeha as well as they thought.

Angela wouldn't let that kind of relationship brew between the two of them, so she nicked it in the bud as soon as Ana showed signs of animosity. It took a couple of tries with the stubborn woman, but Angela eventually got through with a lot of listening, and a few choice words.

If only Fareeha were that easy. It wasn't like Angela to be discouraged right away. Doing science had similar pitfalls. She knew something was wrong, but couldn't figure out the problem. There were too many variables when it came to biology, but it just meant that she had to change the design and try again. That was the approach she wanted to take with Fareeha. But even Angela had limits.

One day, after spending an hour looking for Fareeha, Angela finally snapped and sought out Jesse to complain. She found him lounging around with Hanzo, and she dragged him off to his room by the ear.

"Where is she?" said Angela, resisting the temptation to shake Jesse by the shoulders, just to vent her frustration. "How am I supposed to figure out what's wrong if she keeps avoiding me like this?"

Jesse smiled sympathetically, but didn't have anything useful to offer. "Keep it up, Sugar Dumpling. I'm sure that she'll tell you when she's ready."

Angela huffed and tossed her head back to flick her hair out of her eyes. "She's such a kid, you know that? Oh yeah, she can stare death in the eye without flinching, but it's like… if she can't punch her problems away, she'll run from them. Anyway, will Fareeha ever be ready? If it's something big, she might never get over it."

"I reckon she will. All forms of hurt can be healed with time."

It was probably the way that Jesse broke eye-contact with Angela to look off to the side at nothing in particular. Angela couldn't be sure, so she had to ask.

"Do you know something?"

Jesse's grimace answered Angela's question. She was sure that there was a time in Jesse's life when he needed to be a good liar, but thankfully, he hadn't needed to in years. He had become easier to read since they were teenagers, and Angela wasn't afraid to abuse her knowledge.

"Jesse, please, it might help", said Angela.

"Oh, it definitely would", sighed Jesse, running a hand through his hair. "But I am going to keep my lips sealed. Of course you've both been talking to me about this. But Fareeha's my friend, and she trusts me. I can't go blabbing all her secrets to you even if it's what's best for her."

Angela felt a brief twinge of jealousy upon finding out that there was something Fareeha trusted Jesse with that Angela didn't know about. It made her stomach feel heavy as if she had swallowed a mouthful of stones.

"Is it something I did?" whispered Angela.

"No! No! None of that!" said Jesse. "It's something that happened to her in the past. Let's just say… love makes people vulnerable, and after someone gets assaulted enough times, they're going to end up building walls for defence."

What was meant to be consoling had the opposite effect on Angela, who felt the weight of responsibility from Jesse's hint.

"So if Fareeha lets me past those walls, I'm going to have to be very careful."

"Well… yes. And I suppose you don't have the cleanest record, so don't go revealing anything about your… history until Fareeha's ready."

"History? What kind of history? Isn't communication the most important thing in any kind of relationship?"

Just as Jesse opened his mouth to respond, he was interrupted by a blazing siren.

"What the-?"

"Warning, intruder alert", echoed Athena's voice through the halls.

"Shit!" said Jesse. Jesse swept his and Hanzo's suitcases off the foot of their bed, and kicked open the door.

The team had expected an attack to happen sooner or later. They had been on high alert ever since the media had made it known that Overwatch had returned. Without the support of the United Nations or a dedicated intelligence unit, they figured that if something happened, there wouldn't be any warning. Around each member's neck was the grim reminder of mortality, in the form of dog tags that were never to be removed.

"The intruders have reached the build-", and Athena's voice died. The sirens stopped blazing, and yet the silence was more deafening.

"Athena!" said Angela. When she didn't get a response, she turned to Jesse, completely perplexed. "How?"

"There's no time for that!" said Jesse, dropping one suitcase and shoving Angela out the door. He drew his pistol and checked the intersection in the hallway before signalling to Angela that it was clear. "Damn it, Angela, where's your gun?"

Angela felt like smacking herself in the forehead for how carefree she had been. She hadn't taken the threat of attack as seriously as the other members. The rest of the team lived out of their luggage, anticipating something like this, and all of Angela's laundry was scattered across the floor of her room.

"I left it with my suit, in the hangar. At least that's where we're headed, right?"

"You're lucky you're with me", mumbled Jesse, as the duo scurried low against walls. "I hope everyone gets out alright… Damn it, if only Athena were up. She could give us the enemy's position…"

And then, Angela realized how serious her carelessness had been. It was common knowledge for one to back up important information. Angela had stored her data on her computer, and another copy was held by Athena. But with the A.I. down and no guarantee for recovery, Angela started to panic. She mentally cursed herself for being too paranoid of potential hackers stealing and selling her work to back up her data online. Now she was at risk of losing everything.

The first person Angela and Jesse ran into was Hanzo, who was relieved at the sight of his boyfriend.

"Jesse! Do you know what is happening?" said Hanzo.

"No, but we need to follow protocol and meet up at the hangar", said Jesse. "You shouldn't have gone looking for me…"

Angela took this as her opportunity to slip away. While the couple was distracted, Angela took to running towards her office.

She passed by Jamison and Mako carrying armfuls of as many explosives as they could save. Jamison opened his mouth to say something, and might have stopped Angela if he had free hands, but before he could do anything, Angela was already gone.

As soon as Angela arrived at the empty infirmary, she moved the many blood samples she had extracted from herself over the last several months into a fireproof safe, and put the whole thing back into the refrigerator.

The second thing Angela did was dig up an ancient, unused USB drive and jam it into her computer.

"Athena! Athena!" said Angela, checking to see if the A.I. had come back online.

Nothing.

It didn't take long for Angela to transfer her life's work onto her USB drive and shove it into her pocket.

Angela peeked out into the hallway. It was deserted.

Maybe Athena had simply malfunctioned?

She started towards the exit, but remembered her mice and the lab. If the building went up in flames, she wouldn't be able to save the mice. There was nothing she could do about that. But MeiLing and Winston's offices were in the lab, and maybe they hadn't backed up their data either. If Winston lost his work, he'd be set back a few years. But MeiLing's data was irreplaceable.

A quick detour wouldn't take too long, would it?

MeiLing's computer wasn't password protected. Angela would have to scold her for that later.

Angela had just managed to copy the data MeiLing had gathered from their last trip to Antarctica when every hair on her body stood on end. At first she couldn't figure out why, until she heard the footsteps.

She ducked under MeiLing's desk, hoping for the footsteps to pass, but to her horror, they entered the lab and stopped.

"It's been a while, Angela", came a deep, raspy voice.

Angela held her breath. Who was that? How did he know her name?

"I know you're in here. Why don't you come out and say hello to an old friend?"

What did he mean by an "old friend"? The more Angela thought about it, the more the voice sounded familiar…

Whoever the person was, Angela could now hear him at end of the lab, furthest away from the exit. She peeked above MeiLing's desk and saw the end of a black piece of fabric flutter into one of her experiment rooms.

Then came the squeaking.

Angela had never heard her mice make that sound before. It was so loud she was surprised to hear it from that distance, and had such a prolonged duration it was more like a pig squealing. Whatever the stranger was doing to the mouse, Angela didn't want to stick around long enough to find out.

Angela slipped off her shoes, and carefully tiptoed out the room. Just as she passed the doorframe, the squealing stopped.

"You should've stayed under that desk, missy."

Angela broke into a run. She made a beeline for the main entrance to the facility, occasionally checking over her shoulder to see if the stranger was still following, but couldn't see him anywhere.

Finally! The door!

Angela gasped when her shoulder collided with heavy metal.

Angela frantically looked for the motion detector that was supposed to grant her freedom.

She could see the blinking red light, but as Angela waved her arms as far as she could reach towards it, the doors stayed still.

It didn't take a genius to figure out something was wrong. First Athena, now this.

Angela recalled the memory of the building's blueprint. All the exits of the building were controlled by a similar mechanism to this one. Most of the windows were too small for an adult to crawl through. Those that were large enough didn't open and were made of bullet-proof glass. All of the security measures the team had taken to keep intruders out had now trapped Angela in.

But then, there was _that_. One exit that could only be opened manually from the inside. It led to a place that she was more than familiar with, having spent many hours there with Fareeha.

"Hello, Angela."

Angela spun around, and there he was. A man wrapped in black from head-to-toe. His face was obscured by a white mask that looked like it could have been made from bone. Angela backed up slowly, and the man advanced in kind. He wore a light cloak that billowed behind him, yet his footsteps were heavy. It sounded like he intentionally put more weight into each step, as if he was afraid that he could dissolve into thin air if he didn't ground himself.

"You'd better start running", he said.

Angela's mind couldn't tell if she should obey or not, so her legs made the decision for her. Before she knew it, she was already flying up stairs. She put a good distance between her and the man, as he followed at his own leisurely pace.

Finally Angela found the latch in the ceiling. She turned it with more strength than she knew she had, and her socked feet slipped on the cold floor, but she caught herself as she fell.

She darted onto the roof, and closed the hatch behind her. But where did she go from there?

Angela leaned over the edge of the roof, and looked down. It was a far drop.

She could see the hangar from where she was. Surely, the team wouldn't leave without her?

She remembered the protocol in this situation. Members were to head to the hangar, and load the ship with as much equipment as they could. And once she was suited up, Fareeha would take to the skies and try to clear the path for any stragglers.

Angela's clammy hands warmed somewhat. Fareeha would come.

Angela made herself as big as she could, spreading her limbs like a starfish and jumping up and down. She wanted to scream for help, but that felt like a bad idea.

It was then that she heard the latch start to turn.

Swearing under her breath, Angela jumped on top of the hatch, just as it started to open. It worked to close the hatch at first, but the stranger possessed some extraordinary strength, and with the next attempt, threw Angela off the hatch, sending her sprawling on the ground.

"Well, well it looks like you don't have anywhere left to go."

"What do you want from me?" said Angela, scrambling to her feet.

"How cold", said the man. "How could you have forgotten me after all we've been through together?"

"Who are you?"

"You don't recognize me? Even after you ruined my life?"

Angela kept a hawk-like stare at the man, but searched for anything loose she could use as a weapon using her peripheral vision.

"First I was wronged by the UN and Overwatch. I thought they took everything from me. But you proved me wrong. Right when I thought I had nothing left, you took away something I didn't know was valuable until it was gone."

The man reached into his cloak and pulled out a gun. It was a normal handgun, but it looked tiny in the man's heavy gauntlet, which was tipped with dangerous, metal talons.

Angela reacted immediately. She knew she was too close to the man to run away. So she leapt towards him, hoping to disarm him. It was better to go down with a fight, after all. But the action proved to be unnecessary.

The man lifted his arm out of Angela's reach, and pressed the barrel of the gun against his temple.

"What are you do-" started Angela. And he pulled the trigger.

There was the unmistakable smell of gunpowder, and black fluid exploded from the other side of the man's head. But he did not fall.

Angela gasped, finally realizing who her "old friend" was.

"Gabriel", she choked.

"Gabriel died with his dignity", said the man. "I go by Reaper now."

"Gabriel, I'm sorry! I just wanted to save your life!"

The man cocked his head slightly, and faster than Angela could react, aimed his gun downwards, and shot Angela through the foot.

Angela blinked, and she was on the ground again, with someone's screaming ringing in her ear. When she realized it was hers, she clenched her teeth together, and tried to apply pressure on her foot to stanch the flow of blood.

"I told you, my name is Reaper. And you didn't save my life. Quite the opposite, really."

"Gab- Reaper, please, let's talk about this."

"Talk? Oh yes, I've wanted to do that for a long time."

"About what?" Angela had to buy time. Fareeha would find her soon. She just had to.

"Why did you join Overwatch?"

This was not a question Angela was expecting, but she knew she had no choice but to indulge him.

"To fight against the Omnic Crises."

"By the time you joined, the First Omnic Crisis was already over."

"To save lives as a medic and doctor."

"You had already served as a medic and doctor when we picked you up."

"I joined to do life-saving research."

"You could have done that anywhere."

"Fine! I did it for the fame then!" said Angela desperately.

"You were already famous as a medical prodigy before you joined, which is why Overwatch reached out to you in the first place. In fact, you could have done and had everything you just listed if you stayed as the head of surgery in the most renowned hospital in Switzerland."

Angela clenched her jaw, and pressed her hands against her foot harder.

That was when she heard the unmistakable sound of jump jets in the distance.

Maybe it was too soon, but Angela sprang onto her uninjured leg, and tried hopping for the edge of the roof.

There was a loud bang, and Angela cried out as she fell as a bullet found its way through her good leg's kneecap.

Angela tried to push herself up, but was slammed back down with a heavy boot to the back.

"We're not done talking", said Reaper. He ground the heel into Angela's spine, and she tried her best to contain a groan of pain.

"You're a psychopath!" blurted Angela.

"I'm not a psychopath…" insisted Reaper.

Another bullet found its way into Angela's leg, and she could smell burnt flesh.

"I'm a high-functioning psychopath", finished Reaper.

Hot tears ran down Angela's cheeks, and she could taste blood from where she bit her tongue to keep from whimpering. But she made it. She made it to the edge of the roof.

"You think you're a good person, don't you?"

"I am!" yelled Angela. "I help people! I do everything I can to save lives!"

"Who do you do it for?"

"For the people! For the world!"

"Oh really? And here I thought you did it all for your own selfish whims."

"No, I want to help… I don't want people to suffer…"

"You know, I actually agree with one of your earlier answers", interrupted Reaper. "You joined Overwatch to do research."

"You said I could do that anywhere…" Angela was silenced when Reaper ground his boot into one of the open wounds on her leg.

"That's right. But there's a difference between research with Overwatch and research elsewhere. You don't have to beg for money with Overwatch."

"Nobody… likes… applying… for… grants…" grunted Angela.

"But with grants, you need someone's permission to proceed with your research. With Overwatch, you get money first, and decide what to do with it later."

"What's the difference?" yelled Angela.

"The difference is that you could do whatever research you wanted without anybody asking questions. Tell me, Miss "Angel". Who were you helping when you saved Genji's life?"

"Genji, of course."

"If you really wanted to help the random almost-corpse of the kid we picked off the streets of Japan, why did you turn him into a living weapon? I thought you hated violence. Why didn't you just give him a normal body? Like the one most omnics have?"

"Please… Gab- Reaper. I just wanted to help…"

"Yourself. You were just helping yourself. In what other scenarios would you be able to turn somebody into a cyborg? It's no coincidence Genji was the first cyborg created. That type of experimentation was banned before you did it. And instead of getting punished, _somebody_ got a Nobel Prize for it."

"No! You have it all wrong!"

Reaper stomped on Angela's other knee with a resounding crack.

He stepped in front of Angela, grabbed her ponytail, and yanked her head off the ground.

"So you "saved" my life. You "saved" Genji's life. Where were you afterwards? How long did Genji suffer in his new body?"

"Genji had a choice! He gave permission! I wouldn't have done it if he didn't say yes!"

"If a mugger pointed a gun at you, and said, "I'll give you a choice. Either you give me all your money, or I shoot", is that really a choice?"

For emphasis, Reaper pressed his gun to the top of Angela's head.

Her heart leapt. From the corner of her eye, she could see a streak of blue flying towards her.

"So. You're going to kill me now? To teach me a lesson?"

"Hmmm", pondered Reaper. "No. I won't. Remember what you said when Overwatch's PR asked you to leave behind your gun when you went into warzones as a medic? I do. "I don't shoot to kill". Well, Doctor Ziegler. Neither will I."

Reaper moved the gun to the base of Angela's spine and pulled the trigger.

There was so much adrenaline pumping through Angela's body, she barely even felt it. It was more as if all the strength left her body.

"Here", said Reaper.

He picked up Angela's limp hand, and wrapped her fingers around the handle of his gun.

"You can have it", he said.

"Get back!" yelled a voice from above.

The force of a concussion blast pushed Reaper and Angela apart. Angela found herself tipping over the edge of the roof, but not before she saw Reaper dissolve into a black mist, and disappear down the hatch into the building.

Right as she fell, hard armoured arms caught her, and brought her close to her saviour's chest.

"Fareeha…"

"Angela! I'm so sorry! Don't worry, you're going to be alright. You're safe now. I got you."

Even though Angela felt safe in the circle of Fareeha's arms, she didn't feel comfortable at all. The metal of Fareeha's suit dug into her back, and she was all too aware that she couldn't feel anything below the waist, even though Fareeha supported her weight under her bloody knees. More than anything, all she wanted was to feel Fareeha's warm, human skin against her own.

Looking to satisfy this need, Angela looked to the only exposed part of Fareeha's body, and touched Fareeha's cheek. She watched as the inside ends of Fareeha's eyebrows scrunched upwards.

She looked like she was about to cry.

Fareeha turned her face slightly, and at first Angela worried that she was trying to shake off her hand. After all, not only was their relationship in an awkward position at the moment, but she also had blood on her hands. But then she felt Fareeha's lips press against her palm instead.

All too soon, Angela was aboard the ship.

She was quickly surrounded by the Overwatch team.

"Angela! What happened? Thank goodness you're alive!" said Reinhardt.

"What were you doing, running off like that?" shouted Jesse.

"I… my data. And I got Mei's too…" said Angela.

"What!" exclaimed MeiLing. "You risked your life for data? Angela, I share my data online as soon as I get it…"

"Never mind that", said Fareeha. "We have to get Angela to a hospital right now…"

"No!"

Fareeha stared incredulously at Angela.

"We can't go anywhere where it's populated! What if whoever attacked us follows us? Don't you remember protocol? We fly out to the Atlantic Ocean and sit there for a few days until we're sure we're not being followed", said Angela.

"We can't do that, look at you!" said Fareeha.

"And if we get attacked in the middle of the city, there will be causalities. Do you really want to risk the deaths of innocent civilians?" said Angela. She was starting to feel light-headed.

"I don't mean to interrupt, but you're forgetting that your blood isn't made of nanobots anymore", said Jesse. "Do you think you're going to fix yourself up? You're an amazing doctor, Angela, but I don't you think you can bend that way."

"I… Fareeha! Fareeha has been learning how to stitch! She can do it!" said Angela frantically.

"You will need more work than just that", said Ana.

"Fareeha! Please! You can do it, right? Fareeha please, I trust you", said Angela.

Fareeha chewed the inside of her cheek.

"I can't, Angela, I can't. A hospital… we need a hospital…" said Fareeha.

"Would you rather risk one life, or a hundred innocent ones?" roared Angela.

"I know! I know!" shouted Fareeha, shaking her head. "If I were in your position, I'd say the same! But I can't… not your life, please Angela, don't make me…"

"Oh, will you shut up about all this moral dilemma bollocks and make a decision already? Can't you see she's bleeding to death?" yelled Lena.

Everyone turned to the woman whose entry to the ship had gone unnoticed.

"Where the heck were _you_?" said Jesse.

"Your hair and clothes are a mess", said Ana. "Well, more than usual."

"I uh." Lena rubbed the back of her neck. "There was a big spider. I had to deal with it."

"Enough", said Fareeha calmly. "Lena, get us out of here."

Lena didn't waste any time, and jumped into the pilot's seat.

"Where to?" said Lena as they ascended high enough to be hidden by clouds.

"Follow protocol. To the Atlantic…" said Fareeha.

"Thank you, Fareeha…" said Angela.

"We'll meet you there", finished Fareeha.

Then, Fareeha popped open the bottom of the ship, bundled Angela into her arms, and dropped out before anybody could stop her.


	14. Chapter 14

"Nina, Buschi, schlof  
Uf der Matte waided d'Schof  
I der Schüre d' Lämmeli  
Bhüet di Gott mis Ängeli."

Bursts of colour exploded in Angela's still-dark world.

"Nina, Buschi, schlof  
Gib dir dänn es goldigs Schof  
Gib dir dänn es Lämmeli  
Bhüet di Gott klai Ängeli."

There was the smell of a carrot cake baking in the oven. A blonde woman was folding laundry and singing. What did her face look like, again?

"Nina, Wiegeli,  
Uf em Dach sin Ziegeli  
Unterem Dach sin Schindeli  
Schlof mi lieb klai Kindeli."

"Mami?" murmured Angela.

No, it wasn't her mother. Her mother had the sweetest, highest, singing voice. This one was deeper and had a richer quality to it. Also, while the singer had put in effort to make sure that the German was Swiss, there was no hiding the heavy, Arabic accent that hung on each syllable.

Angela opened her eyes somewhat, and through her blurry vision, saw the shapes of dark hair, and a gentle face.

Upon seeing Angela wake up, Fareeha rose from her chair and rushed out the door.

" _Come back_ ", said Angela, groping at the empty air where Fareeha had been. Maybe she had just imagined Fareeha.

It wasn't long before Fareeha returned with two other people behind her.

"How is she doing?" said Ana.

"She's still running a high fever, but it's not as bad as it was before. At least she's awake now", said Fareeha.

" _Can you call me Spätzli_?" said Angela in German.

Ana and Fareeha turned to Reinhardt. "What did she say?"

"Angela, you're going to have to talk slower. It's hard for me to understand your accent", said Reinhardt. He turned to address Ana. "She wants you to call her Spätzli. I'm not sure what it means."

" _Little sparrow_ ", said Angela.

"She says it means "little sparrow", said Reinhardt.

 _Isn't that what I said_? thought Angela.

"How are you doing, Spätzli? Are you thirsty?" said Ana.

Angela nodded, and Ana helped her sit up before raising a glass of water to her lips.

Angela eagerly gulped down the cool liquid, only just realising how hot she felt. As soon as the water was gone, she flipped her blanket off her body.

She stared at her legs, which had been wrapped up in bandages that had been changed recently. Slowly, she started to remember what had caused her injury and the hospital she must have been treated in.

She smelled the unpleasant odour that came from her legs.

 _They're infected_ , she thought with disgust.

"Don't do that", said Ana, tucking Angela back in underneath her covers.

" _Where am I?_ " asked Angela in German.

"We're at Watchpoint: Grand Mesa. It's still being overseen by Helix Security International, so Fareeha was able to convince them to let us stay", said Reinhardt in English.

Angela said something.

"She asked how long she was out", said Reinhardt.

 _Isn't that what I said_? thought Angela.

"Only one day", said Reinhardt, answering her question.

 _One whole day_? thought Angela, suddenly alarmed. She thought about the data she needed to collect regularly on the condition of her body for her nanobot research, and panicked about falling behind.

" _Listen, I need you to bring me a blood test kit. I also need you to swab my infection, inoculate it on LB plates, and grow it at exactly 30 degrees Celsius_ ", said Angela.

Reinhardt met Ana and Fareeha's questioning gazes with a confused look of his own.

"She, uh, she said she wants us to bring her a head of lettuce, tickle her armpits, buy two goats, and sacrifice them in the desert."

" _What_?" said Angela.

"Angela, honey… Spätzli, do you think you can talk to us in English?" said Ana.

" _Aren't I already_?" said Angela.

"No, Spätzli, you've only used a strange mix of your native dialect and standard German so far", said Reinhardt. He cupped Angela's cheek in his hand. It was so ridiculously large that Reinhardt's hand covered the length of the side of her head, and his thumb was easily able to stroke her hair. "Try to get some rest. Ana and I are going to make you something to eat, ok?"

" _No! At the very least, I need a blood test kit!_ "

"Spätzli, you asked for a head of lettuce again", said Reinhardt.

Angela groaned and fell back onto her pillow.

"She's delirious from the fever", said Ana.

"Did you hit her head or something when you carried her to the hospital?" Reinhardt asked Fareeha.

"I accidentally bumped her head, but I swear it was more of a tap!" said Fareeha. "Maybe her dose of painkillers was too strong. I still think we need to get her medical attention."

" _No need_ ", said Angela. " _Is this facility still well-stocked? Can you look for antibiotics?_ "

Reinhardt translated for Angela.

"We've already tried all the antibiotics we could find", said Fareeha.

"Maybe it is too soon to see results", said Ana. "But half the team is off on a mission to… procure… some nanobots."

"She means they're going to steal from a hospital", said Fareeha, frowning and crossing her arms over her chest. "You lost consciousness right before we got to the hospital in Gibraltar, but they refused to use nanobots on you. I told them we could pay them back several times the cost of the nanobots, but the most I could get was nanobots for your spine in exchange for a…" Fareeha sighed. "For a photo op. They treated your legs using traditional techniques. Pictures of the famous, wounded "Mercy" are all over the Internet now. There's one of the doctor making a stupid face and holding a peace sign next to your bloody legs. I wanted to cave in that guy's face so much. But I wasn't in a position to negotiate."

 _They probably didn't do a good job. That would explain where I picked up an antibiotic-resistant infection_ , thought Angela.

"I still don't like that we have to resort to stealing. But if it'll help you get better…" said Fareeha.

" _I feel fine_ ", said Angela. " _Great actually. Maybe a bit hot though_."

Angela flung the sheets off her legs again.

"Stop doing that!" said Ana, who didn't need a translation to guess what Angela had said. She fussed over Angela, tucking her back in again. "I am going to the kitchen to prepare sustenance for the ailing doctor. Fareeha, make sure she keeps the covers on."

As soon as Ana was gone, Angela reached for Fareeha's hand.

Upon contact, Fareeha flinched, but didn't pull away.

" _Fareeha. I missed you_ ", said Angela in a longing voice.

Instead of translating, Reinhardt decided to look at Fareeha with a smirk, his cheeks taking on a rosy colour. This, coupled with recognizing her name must have sent Fareeha's imagination into overdrive, and she suddenly stood, and marched out the door like a toy soldier.

" _Make her come back_ ", whined Angela.

" _Don't worry, she'll come back by herself_ ", said Reinhardt in German.

" _Did you teach her that song_?" said Angela.

" _She looked it up, but I helped her learn it_ ", said Reinhardt. " _She's been practicing it all day_."

Angela groaned, and pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes. " _She's perfect. She's so perfect. Why is she so perfect?_ "

Reinhardt laughed. " _She's as perfect as you are, Spätzli_."

" _I'm not perfect at all_."

" _Exactly. Even Fareeha coughs, burps, and farts, you know._ "

Angela started giggling uncontrollably over the word "fart". Reinhardt waited for her to calm down before he spoke again. Angela really appreciated Reinhardt's efforts to keep the volume of his voice low.

" _I hope it works out between you two. I've been watching you for so long, and I really think you deserve this. And nothing would make ol' Papa Reinhardt happier than seeing two of his daughters get along_."

Reinhardt's gentle voice was starting to make Angela feel sleepy. She laughed softly and clutched Reinhardt's hand. " _Papa, huh?_ "

" _There would be no greater honour_ ", said Reinhardt.

Angela's blink lasted several seconds. With closed eyes she saw a tall, slender man, with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a goofy smile that stretched from ear to ear. A pair of glasses balanced on a high nose, but they never stayed there for long because of the small, sticky pair of hands that always snatched them away.

" _No, not Papa_ ", murmured Angela dreamily. " _Papi_."

" _Pa-"_ Reinhardt choked.

Angela's eyes closed involuntarily again.

 _The blonde man held a finger over his lips, and handed Angela a bar of chocolate wrapped in purple packaging, adorned with a picture of a little cow. "Don't tell Mami", he said._

" _You said you'd get me a Kinder surprise egg" came a childlike voice._

" _I did, but I couldn't help myself and ate the chocolate on my way home from the store. I have the toy here though. Would you like to put it together with me, Spätzli?" replied the blonde man._

Angela was brought back to the present when Reinhardt covered Angela's hand with both of his.

" _Hey, I'm not sure if you'll remember this when this is over, but I want to tell you something_ ", said Reinhardt.

" _What is it, Papi?_ " said Angela.

" _I have always wanted children. But I never did because I didn't think it would be fair to the child to have a Papa who couldn't come home every night. As long as the world needs me I will never be able to put my hammer down_ ", said Reinhardt.

In between Reinhardt's words, the blonde man continued to speak to Angela.

" _Spätzli, you have chocolate all over your face!" laughed the blonde man._

" _But somehow Ana was able to pull it off with Fareeha_ ", continued Reinhardt." _For a long time, I was so jealous. But I don't have to be, because now I have so many children. And I have you, right_ _Süße?_ "

Reinhardt braved a smile.

" _No_."

Reinhardt's smile faltered.

" _No, not Süße._ _Spätzli._ " Angela yawned and her eyelashes fluttered in her attempt to keep her eyes open. _"You always called me Spätzli, don't you remember, Papi?_ "

" _Ah yes, you're right._ "

Angela's vision turned to darkness with the feeling of Reinhardt's heavy hand over her eyes.

" _Papa… I mean, Papi must be getting old. Spätzli. You must be tired, Spätzli. Go to sleep, Spätzli_ ", said Reinhardt.

" _Goodnight, Papi_."

Reinhardt didn't respond, but Angela had never felt his hand shake so much.

* * *

" _Spätzli."_

 _Angela started at the sound of her mother's voice._

" _Didn't Papi tell you he didn't want you touching his collection of antiquarian books?" said Angela's mother. "If you want to read something I can buy a digital copy for you."_

" _They're not the same", said a six-year old Angela. "I like how these smell. And I like how heavy they are."_

 _Angela's mother laughed and shook her head._

" _You always did like old-fashioned things."_

" _Matthias said that I'm actually an old person reborn into a kid's body."_

" _Well, that would explain how you're smarter than most of the adults I know."_

" _I hate Matthias. And all his friends."_

" _Matthias is friends with all the children in the village."_

" _I know."_

 _Angela's mother sighed._

" _I wish you could get along with the other children."_

" _It's not my fault. They don't like me."_

" _Oh Spätzli. Don't worry, I'll always be your friend."_

" _Thanks Mami."_

" _Would you like to play with Mami? You're always hiding away to read. Let's kick a ball around outside."_

" _But Mami, I don't want to go outside. I like it in here."_

" _Would you like to learn how to play chess, then?"_

" _I already know how. I'll probably beat you."_

 _Angela's mother smirked._

" _We'll see about that."_

 _After just a few moves into their first game, Angela's mother had already checkmated Angela._

" _What's this?!" exclaimed Angela angrily. "I've never seen this before!"_

" _It's called a Shepherd's or Scholar's Mate", said Angela's mother._

" _That's a cheap trick! I demand a rematch!" screeched Angela._

 _Angela lost again the next round. And the next. After Angela's third loss, Angela scratched her head in frustration._

" _How is this happening? I've never lost to Papi!"_

" _Maybe Papi isn't as smart as Mami", said Angela's father who had just entered the room._

 _Angela caught her father winking at her mother._

" _Spätzli, would you like to play with your Papi before dinner?" said Angela's father._

" _No, I can't stop until I beat Mami."_

" _But look at what I just made", said Angela's father._

 _He pulled out a new kite from behind his back. On the front was a stylized picture of a sparrow._

" _Oooo", said Angela, hopping from her chair._

" _Wait, she's playing with Mami right now", protested Angela's mother._

" _It's not a contest", said Angela's father gently. "Come with us."_

 _The sky was clear that day and the wind was strong. Perfect conditions for kite flying._

 _Unfortunately, Angela wasn't the only kid at the park._

 _She did her best not to pay attention to the smirking and pointing fingers._

C'mon. Higher. Higher, _thought Angela as her feet thumped against the grassy field. The kite followed behind her, but wouldn't get higher than waist-level._

" _Let Papi help", said Angela's father._

" _I can do it by myself!" insisted Angela._

" _Maybe one day when Spätzli is a little bigger, ja? But today, we can do it together", said Angela's father._

 _Angela's father promptly picked up his daughter, and put her on his shoulders._

" _Oh Schätzli, that looks dangerous", protested Angela's mother._

 _It was as if Angela's mother's disapproval was what warmed Angela to her father's plan. She turned towards her mother and stuck her tongue out, albeit, with a smile on her face. Angela's mother chuckled and retaliated with her own bit of tongue._

" _Hold on tight to the spool, Spätzli. You're going to fly now", said Angela's father._

 _It only took one attempt at running to send the kite soaring._

 _Angela's father wasn't the most athletic person, and stopped as soon as his mission was complete, panting all the while._

" _Woah!" gasped Angela. A particularly strong gust of wind nearly yanked the spool from Angela's hands. She felt herself starting to rise from her seat on her father's shoulders, but just as she was almost carried away, Angela's mother was there to close her warm hands over Angela's, and Angela's father clutched her legs, keeping her grounded._

 _The kite danced on the wind, ducking and twirling in the open, blue sky._

 _The kite wasn't the only thing that the mischievous wind played with. The rushing air swept around Angela, sending her loose hair into a flurry around her face, and drowning out the sounds of distant laughter._

 _Sitting on her father's shoulders, and with her mother helping to keep the kite from flying away, Angela reached out towards the sky with her left hand, and closed her fist over empty air._

" _Mami. Papi. Do you think we could find a way to attach me to a kite? I want to fly too."_

* * *

Angela awoke to Fareeha's nudging.

"Angela, are you hungry? Mama made something for you."

Fareeha helped Angela sit up, and handed Angela a bowl of porridge. Angela wondered why her left arm felt sore.

"I also hope you don't mind, but I did some things while you were asleep. I had to ask Athena for help, but I think I did everything right", said Fareeha.

"Athena's back on then?" said Angela.

Fareeha smiled and held Angela's hand.

"Finally! Some English! Also, to answer your question, Athena is online at all of Overwatch's bases. When she recognized that she was being hacked, she cut off her connection from Gibraltar. She was only disabled there."

Fareeha pulled out something, and Angela's eyes bulged at the sight of it.

"Don't tell anybody, but Lena and I went back to Gibraltar last night and brought some things I knew you'd want. Like your blood samples, mice, and this."

Fareeha handed Angela her lab book, and opened it to the most recent entry.

Amidst Angela's messy writing, Angela's eyes gravitated towards Fareeha's orderly print, detailing Angela's condition, and all sorts of descriptors, including her temperature throughout the day, her heart rate, blood pressure, and progress on her leg.

"Oh, Fareeha! Fareeha, mein Schätzli. Thank you!"

"Schätzli isn't the same as Spätzliis it?"

"I'm just describing how precious you are."

"Oh." Fareeha smiled sheepishly before continuing. "I also took a blood sample. I'm going to change your bandages now."

"You took a blood sample for me?" said Angela, as Fareeha started unwrapping her bandages. "I thought Reinhardt couldn't understand what I was saying!"

"I'm still pretty sure you asked for a head of lettuce", said Fareeha with a laugh. "But I know you've been taking blood samples for months now and I confirmed it when I found your lab book."

Angela couldn't help but blush at the idea of Fareeha picking up her lab book. Lab books were meant to be comprehensible to anybody who wanted to check her work, but nobody had asked for it for a long time. Now it felt more personal than a diary.

Fareeha finished removing the light dressings and frowned at the distasteful sight of patchy skin oozing with pus.

"Don't make that face", laughed Angela. "It doesn't actually look that bad. If my immune system were as strong as it was before I started taking nanobots, I might not have gotten an infection at all. But you did an excellent job with it anyway."

Fareeha winced. "It's going to scar, isn't it?"

"Maybe, but they won't be my first scars", said Angela. Angela took a mouthful of porridge before setting down the bowl. "Check this out."

Angela lifted the hem of her shirt, where a large scar sat at the bottom of her ribcage.

"I got this doozy before I joined Overwatch. I passed out before I could treat it myself, and the other medic on my team wasn't that talented."

"It almost sounds like you're _bragging_ about it", said Fareeha.

"Maybe I am."

"Well, if it's a contest, I win this, hands down." Fareeha turned around and lifted the back of her shirt, revealing a canvas of skin, marred with all sorts of old, raised blemishes that criss-crossed over her skin.

Angela's breath hitched in her throat, and she reached out, her hand having a mind of its own.

Fareeha froze at the feeling of Angela ghosting her fingers over warm skin. She traced the lines and circles, following them like a treasure map.

"Beautiful", murmured Angela.

Angela could literally feel the shiver that ran down Fareeha's spine.

Fareeha may not have been born with the scars, but Angela didn't see them as disfigurements. They were proof that Fareeha had not only survived all the hurt she had endured, but she had healed from them as well. They were a part of what made Fareeha the person she was.

Fareeha dropped her shirt and turned around, her blush obvious even on dark skin.

"I'll, uh, give you fresh bandages now", said Fareeha.

"Wait, Fareeha, don't wrap it up yet", said Angela. "I would like to find out what's causing the infection. Can you grab some swabs and ask Mei for LB plates? If there aren't any in the lab's fridge, she can make more."

"I don't know what that is, but I sure can."

Fareeha started to stand, but Angela grabbed her sleeve.

"Do you need something else?" said Fareeha.

"Yes. You. Don't go."

"What do want me to… never mind. I'll be right back, alright? Here."

Fareeha reached up and groped blindly on the bunk bed above Angela.

"I also had to go back to Gibraltar because I couldn't leave her behind", said Fareeha. She managed to pull down her giant falcon plush. "She will watch over you while I get the swabs. I'll just be a minute."

Fareeha plopped the plush next to Angela, but Angela wasn't entirely convinced. Fareeha tried to gently pry Angela's fingers off her sleeve, but she wouldn't yield.

"Does she have a name?" said Angela.

Fareeha sighed and blushed slightly.

"I call her Khalil, which means "friend" in Arabic. Do you remember that captain I told you about? The one that made a huge impact on my life? It was his name."

Angela recalled the story of said captain, but Fareeha hadn't mentioned any details.

"Was?"

"Yeah, he didn't make it."

"I'm sorry to hear that. It's a lovely name. But why are you embarrassed?"

"Well, she was originally my mum's, and she had a different name then."

"What was it?"

"Fareeha."

Angela finally let go of Fareeha, and pulled the falcon plush into her arms.

"She smells like you", said Angela, burying her face in the plush. She looked at Fareeha as she started to leave. "She'll do. For now."

Angela watched with bemusement at Fareeha's heavy blush as she darted out the door. The rational part of her felt bad for pushing Fareeha's boundaries when she clearly wasn't ready. She knew that she still needed to talk with Fareeha, but the louder part of Angela didn't want to face that yet. Things may have been still up in the air, but Fareeha was back, and being the good friend she always was.

* * *

 **A/N: The song at the beginning of the chapter is a traditional Swiss lullaby. I don't think the meaning is important, but if you're curious, the translation is:**

 **Lullaby, baby, sleep,**  
 **In the grass the sheep is grazing,**  
 **In the barn, the little lamb.**  
 **God, protect my angel.**

 **Lullaby, baby, sleep,**  
 **Then I'll give you the nice sheep,**  
 **Then I'll give you the little lamb,**  
 **God, protect my little angel.**

 **Lullaby, cradle,**  
 **On the roof there are tiles,**  
 **Under our roof there are shingles**  
 **Sleep, my darling little child.**

 **I had to use it because it's so perfect, since it contains elements of Angela's name (Ängeli and Ziegeli. Ziegler means "brick-maker").**

 **I also used "Mami" and "Papi" for mom and dad, which a quick Google search tells me, are normal terms in Switzerland. I wanted to be somewhat faithful to Angela's mother tongue, in the same way Fareeha calls Ana "Mama", which is normal in Arabic, even though I have no idea if those are the words that locals would use.**

 **Of other words that I haven't defined: Schätzli = little treasure, and ja = yes. Also, throughout my stories, Ana has been calling Fareeha "habibti", which means "darling" or "my love".**


	15. Chapter 15

" _What are you looking at?" said Angela's father._

 _Angela looked over her shoulder to see her father standing right behind her. She hadn't even noticed him walk up to her. She was in the kitchen, and she had been staring so intently at her laptop that she had even tuned out the sound of clashing pots and pans that her mother made as she prepared supper._

" _I'm reading about Lake Titicaca, which is on the border between Peru and Bolivia. It's one of the highest navigable lakes in the world and the largest lake in South America", said Angela._

" _You're really interested in everything, aren't you?" said Angela's father._

" _I guess so. But that makes it harder to choose which program and university to go to", said Angela._

" _Do you really have to choose now? You're only seven. Why don't you just stay at home a little longer?" said Angela's mother._

 _The small family unit had already had this conversation many times before. Angela opened her mouth to argue before her father cut in._

" _Spätzli, have you ever heard about the Witch of Lake Titicaca?" said Angela's father._

 _Angela was more interested in the subject she had just been reading about than an argument with her parents, so she let her mother's question go unanswered._

" _No", said Angela._

" _Well, legend has it that the Witch of Lake Titicaca can bend the elements of nature at her will. She uses her magic to drive people out of the forest, so she can live a solitary, peaceful life. Wander too close to her home? You'll get a vine slapped across your butt cheeks. Did you come with ill-intent? Well now you're sinking in quicksand._

 _In order to be more in tune with nature, the Witch of Lake Titicaca doesn't wear any clothes. But sometimes it gets cold, especially at night. Fortunately, she is well-endowed with breasts so large, that they drape down her body and hang at her knees! When it is particularly chilly, she wraps her breasts around herself, and that way, she can stay warm."_

" _Schätzli!" gasped Angela's mother, although she struggled to keep from smiling. "What are you saying to our child?"_

 _Angela giggled._

" _Oh Papi, you're so silly!"_

* * *

Angela couldn't remember the last time she was sick or injured to this degree. It was nice having people dote on her for a change, and the childish part of Angela just wanted to be spoiled.

So, she took the food from Ana, let Fareeha fluff her pillows for her, and smiled when Reinhardt read to her from his German collection. And no matter what Angela needed, Fareeha made sure that Angela was never alone.

Angela hadn't felt so warm in a long time.

To be fair, it didn't help that she still had a fever.

"Angela, _please_ , leave the covers on", said Ana for the umpteenth time after Angela flung the sheets off her legs. "If you keep this up, I am going to have to bundle you up like a caterpillar in a cocoon."

"No, don't do that, I'll be good", said Angela, hugging the falcon plush that she had yet to relinquish.

As hours passed by, Fareeha voiced her concern about the lack of communication they were getting from the Overwatch members who had left to steal nanobots. Their first update came when Jesse and Hanzo returned to the base by themselves, empty-handed.

"Is everything alright?" said Fareeha.

"Yes", replied Hanzo. "We got to the hospital and spent a bit of time investigating to figure out where they keep the nanobots, and how to infiltrate it later. During that time, Mr. Bleeding Heart over here thought it would be a better use of his time to play with the sick kids. Then a bunch of people who were involved in a traffic accident were rushed into the emergency rom. And then Jesse lost the resolve to steal from the hospital."

"He's acting incredibly judgemental right now, but he's actually extremely proud of me", whispered Jesse.

"So am I", Fareeha whispered back.

"How are you feeling, sweet pea?" Jesse asked Angela.

"As long as you keep the painkillers coming, I'll be as happy as a clam" replied Angela.

"Do you… do you think the infection is life-threatening?" said Jesse.

"Hard to say until I get some results back", said Angela.

"Pretty much all the people who went on the mission are dropping out", said Hanzo. "I believe the only one left is my brother."

"There are ways we can treat this without using nanobots", said Angela. "A while ago I patented a method where you infect a healthy person with dead or weakened microbes, and extract white blood cells at various steps of the recovery process. Then you can inject them into an immunocompromised (that's me) individual, where they can take over. It's essentially vaccinating someone and gifting their defence system to someone else. It's a much cheaper alternative to nanobots in this situation."

Fareeha was flabbergasted.

"Why didn't you say that earlier?" exclaimed Fareeha. "We should get started on that right now!"

"Well it depends on whether or not we have the right materials and equipment", said Angela. "There are a lot of nuances that you have to get right. You don't want the healthy white blood cells attacking the wrong things or the recipient, after all. And there's a special media you need to keep the white blood cells alive, another to make copies of them…"

"Ok, ok, I get it, it's complicated", said Fareeha. "Give me a list of everything we need and I'll check to see if this facility has it."

"You must have saved a lot of lives with that technique", said Jesse, when Fareeha left him and Hanzo to keep Angela company. "I almost feel bad for distracting you from your work so much when we were younger."

"Almost?" said Angela.

"You heard me. Sure, you helped a lot of people through your research, but sometimes you have to take some time to help yourself", said Jesse.

"Pfff. You were just bored and wanted to bother someone", said Angela.

Jesse cracked a grin.

"Maybe. Remember the time when you told me and Fareeha that you didn't have time to play, so we stole your computer and hid it for the week I was visiting Overwatch?" said Jesse.

"Of course I do! I was on a deadline!"

"It was worth it though, wasn't it? When we took a few days to go camping, and the three of us would talk all night under the stars until we drifted off to sleep, like in some sort of movie?"

"Oh yes, that's where we learned that you didn't stop wetting the bed until you were eight."

"Angela!" gasped Jesse, not daring to turn and see what sort of expression Hanzo was wearing. Angela did though, and was deeply satisfied with what she saw.

"Ah", sighed Angela serenely. "After all these years, I have finally gotten my revenge after you made me miss my deadline."

"You!" exclaimed Jesse in mock-anger. "Well, when Fareeha comes back, I'm going to tell her about the time when…"

"There isn't a thing you know that Fareeha doesn't", interrupted Angela. "Sorry, cowboy, but you don't have any ammo that'll work on me."

"I am _not_ a cowboy, _Angela_ ", said Jesse, intentionally using the English pronunciation of her name, and sending Angela into a fury.

They bickered back and forth, until Fareeha returned, her gleeful face immediately replaced by confusion. She looked at Hanzo, who only yawned and shrugged.

"Uh, ahem", cut in Fareeha, who was relieved to see that when Angela and Jesse quieted, they turned to face her with smiles on their faces. "We have everything."

"Oh, perfect", said Angela. "Now we just need a healthy person."

"We have plenty of those here", said Fareeha.

She rolled up her sleeve, and stuck her forearm in front of Angela's face.

"Infect me", she said so dramatically that she, Angela, and Jesse couldn't help but burst into laughter. Hanzo did his best to inch towards the exit unseen.

* * *

When night came around, Angela wasn't tired at all. They had only just come from Gibraltar after all, and Angela's circadian rhythm didn't match the hours of daylight on the continent yet.

Ana and Fareeha were staying with Angela in case she needed something, but Reinhardt had to sleep in another room where there was a bed that could accommodate his size. Before Fareeha hopped onto the bunk above Angela's, she looked at Khalil longingly, which Angela noticed, and responded by clutching the falcon plush even tighter. Fareeha relented with a sigh, and settled into bed.

Now that the lights were off and things were quiet, Angela's mind was finally free of distractions, and she couldn't help but to explore the darker parts of her recent memories.

Gabriel was once a good man. Like Jack, he was a figure of authority that Angela respected. They both knew exactly what they were fighting for, and were unafraid to pursue their ambitions forcefully. What started Gabriel's downward spiral of jealousy and anger, to the point where he blew up Overwatch's headquarters, accidental or not? Ana had blamed herself for not being there to support her friends. But how about Angela?

 _Where were you_? echoed Reaper's voice in her head.

Angela was there. Physically, at least. But she did nothing to help Gabriel before and after the explosion. She was doing her job as a doctor to save his life. She didn't have time to help Gabriel recover. Even if she did, Gabriel had disappeared by the next day.

But what about Genji? Not a high ranked officer, he was a simple soldier that could have been called friend. Could have. Not that Angela could be bothered to put any effort into that relationship. Any relationship, really. By the time Genji proved to be useful in his new body, Angela had already moved on to her next project.

 _It was cruel_ , Angela finally admitted years after rebuilding Genji. Not only did she give him no choice but to accept becoming her guinea pig, but she also did it on the condition that he would serve Overwatch. To keep him on a leash, so he could never be used against them.

 _How long did Genji suffer in his new body?_ came Reaper's heinous voice again.

Well, there were those five years between when Overwatch was shut down and recalled by Winston. Then there were those years when Overwatch used him as a weapon. How long was that? It wasn't a detail Angela could remember. At least another five years? Ten years? How could Angela let a patient suffer for so long? Didn't she want to eradicate suffering in the world?

But she had to move on, reasoned Angela. She made so many advancements in technology and healthcare after turning Genji into a cyborg. Surely, all the lives she saved indirectly in lieu of helping Genji were worthwhile.

No. It was no excuse. Angela hated that she was rationalizing things the same way years ago that led to Genji and Gabriel's suffering. If only Reaper never came to burst her bubble. If only he would get out of her head.

She couldn't take it anymore.

"Hey, Fareeha", said Angela, jabbing the underside of Fareeha's bed.

There was no response.

"Hey", tried Angela again.

This time she swung her pillow, sending it flying in a wide arc. Given the "oof" that followed, Angela knew she found her mark.

"I know you're awake, Fareeha."

Still nothing.

Angela wondered if Ana were awake.

She flung the covers off her legs.

"Fareeha, I swear to god, if you do not get up and see what Angela wants right now, I am going to take that falcon plush back", said Ana.

"I'm up, I'm up", sighed Fareeha, dropping down to the floor. "Are you hungry? Do you want me to take you to the washroom?"

"How about picking me up and rocking me until I fall asleep?" said Angela.

Fareeha moved to do just that.

"I was kidding, Fareeha."

Ana laughed.

"I want to talk", said Angela.

Fareeha gulped. Through the moonlight coming through the window, Angela could see that Fareeha was visibly tense. But she didn't run away.

"I'm going to spend the night in Reinhardt's room", said Ana.

Ana climbed out of bed, but made a point of tucking in Angela again before she left.

As soon as Angela and Fareeha were alone, Angela said, "it's about what happened on the roof."

Fareeha relaxed considerably.

"Can I come in?" said Fareeha, pointing at Angela's sheets.

Angela nodded, and Fareeha helped her shimmy to the side so Fareeha could climb in next to her.

Angela recounted everything that Reaper had said. When she was done, Fareeha was so quiet that Angela was afraid she had fallen asleep.

"Fareeha?"

"Yeah, I'm just processing. It's news to me that Gabriel is alive. And what he has become. I used to admire him when I was younger. Well, I admired everybody at Overwatch."

"What do you think about what he said?"

"Do you believe it?"

"I… I don't know", said Angela. "I'm trying to figure that out. Everything he said made so much sense."

Fareeha played with the falcon plush's wings, flapping them up and down.

"To be honest, I get where he's coming from. You hurt him, Angela. If someone hurt you the way you hurt him, I'd hunt them down and…" Fareeha shook her head. "It's different though. You had good intentions. He just wanted revenge. Revenge is not justice."

"Do you think I'm a bad person?" whispered Angela.

"Athena, turn on the lights", called Fareeha.

The room became illuminated, and Angela got a good view of Fareeha leaning in to grab Angela by the shoulders, and looked her straight in the eye.

"You're a good person, Angela. But you have done bad things. Everyone has. And your reasoning isn't perfect or even consistent. But I already knew that. That's why I like you. Because you're amazing, but very clearly human."

Fareeha spoke so matter-of-factly, Angela didn't know how to react. She found her throat closing up, and the only way she could breathe was when she closed her eyes, leaned into Fareeha, and pressed their foreheads together.

Fareeha not only allowed this physical contact, but she furthered it by encircling Angela waist.

"It's easier to simplify things that way", said Fareeha. "I don't know how anybody could live if they didn't. I do it too, and even Mama has warned me about it. There are a few things you can do in this case. You can tweak your worldview, ignore it, or accept that there are flaws in your mental construct, but do nothing about it."

"I don't know what to pick", said Angela.

"I don't expect you to. Not so soon, anyway. But I'm going to choose to ignore it."

"You mean if you were me…?"

"No. I am talking about myself. I am ignoring it. You mess up everything, you know? Once I think I've made up my mind about something, you just have to come along and challenge it."

Angela didn't know what Fareeha was talking about. Their relationship? Or was she also realizing that the world that she had constructed was black-and-white whereas reality was a completely different picture?

"What do you mean?" said Angela.

"Shouldn't bad actions, even if there were no intentions to harm, be punished?" thought Fareeha aloud.

"Isn't this-" Angela jerked back and gestured at her legs, "enough punishment?" said Angela angrily.

"No", said Fareeha. She squeezed her eyes shut. "This wasn't punishment. This was torture. Not just what he did to your body, but what he did to your mind."

Angela's temper fizzled out when she saw the moisture collecting in the corners of Fareeha's eyes.

"This is all my fault. If I were with you when Talon attacked, this would never have happened."

"No, this wouldn't have happened if I weren't stupid and just stayed with Jesse."

"But still! Angela, I was so _scared_ when I found you. It's obvious that Gabriel – or Reaper – attacked us just to get to you. I'm so glad I was there. What would have happened if I never joined Overwatch?"

"Maybe I'd be dead. But you wouldn't have cared anyway."

"Don't say that!" said a horrified Fareeha. "Even if we hadn't seen each other for a long time, you were still my best friend before I left for military school in Egypt. It would have devastated me if you died."

Angela felt that heavy feeling of guilt again. If Fareeha had died before she joined Overwatch, Angela would have received the news with a small pang of pain, but would have moved on. There were so many people who cared about her, but she never reciprocated the intensity of the emotion.

But that was before.

There was still time to change for the better.

"Fareeha, did the team manage to save my equipment?"

"We did. Why?"

"Can you get my staff for me?"

Fareeha moved to get out of the bed, but Angela shifted to cling onto Fareeha with the strength of a baby koala.

"Angela, if you don't let go of me, I can't get it."

"I don't care."

Fareeha sighed.

"Athena, can you contact Private Roberts and tell him to come here?" said Fareeha.

"Right away", replied the A.I.

"We have Helix members stationed nearby to keep you safe", explained Fareeha to Angela.

Within a minute, the door opened to a young man, who blushed at the sight of the two women entangled together.

"Private Roberts, go to the weapons vault, and bring me Doctor Ziegler's staff. Do you know what it looks like?" said Fareeha.

"Oh yes, I bought all the Mercy merchandise when I was a kid, I'm a big fan, in fact, do you think I could get an autograph…"

All Fareeha had to do to get the young man to shut up was lift an eyebrow.

"I mean, yes Captain Amari, I will be right back." Private Roberts saluted properly, and went on his way.

"So you're Captain Amari again?" said Angela.

"Just to Helix Security personnel", said Fareeha. "My superiors were well-aware that I took a leave to join Overwatch. That's why I got to keep my suit. You can count on Helix to be an ally to Overwatch in the future."

Private Roberts returned shortly. He lingered after he passed Angela's staff to Fareeha.

"Just so you know, I'm a big fan of you too, Captain Amari. In fact, I joined Helix because of your accomplishments. Can you… I mean, do you mind if I could have a handshake?"

Angela rolled her eyes, but Fareeha smiled politely, and shook the young man's hand heartily.

"Thank you!" exclaimed Private Roberts. "I'm never washing this hand ever again!"

"Funny kid", said Fareeha, after Private Roberts dashed out of the room.

"Are you famous or something?" said Angela.

"Something like that. Only a select group of people have been given access to Raptora suits. And I did swear that I'd only come back to Overwatch after I made a name for myself."

Fareeha turned Angela's staff in her hands.

"So what is this about? Don't tell me you've had nanobots in this all along?" said Fareeha.

"No, I keep something even more precious in it", said Angela.

She twisted the bottom of the staff off.

"You see, the staff is made of some pretty tough material. There's nowhere safer for someone like me to store something than this", said Angela.

"I didn't even know there was a compartment there."

Angela carefully removed a tightly rolled stack of papers from her staff. She unfurled them and handed them to Fareeha.

Fareeha's jaw promptly dropped when she saw the contents of the documents.

"They're the letters I sent after I left for school", said Fareeha.

"Yeah, they are."

"Are they all…?"

"Yes, all of them are in here", said Angela. "I get a lot of letters from a lot of people. But I only kept yours."

"Why?" said Fareeha, flipping through the pages.

"The letters I get are the same. For saving people's lives, treating a disease they thought was incurable, stuff like that. I even got one from Genji around the time of the recall. It made me happy to find out that he had finally found peace with his augmented body, but I didn't keep that letter either."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"For a long time, I didn't know why either. I mean, I barely responded to you, right? The other letters… they were all thanking me for being a wonderful person, and an amazing doctor. But I'm more than that, aren't I? I think I now know why I kept yours. Because they're so _boring_."

"Excuse me?" exclaimed a scandalized Fareeha.

"I mean, listen to this", said Angela, grabbing a random letter. "Dear Angela. How are you doing? I am doing well. Today we had eish masri, which is a type of glutinous pita bread, for breakfast. Then we did our lessons. For lunch we had sandwiches. Then we continued with strength training and conditioning. For dinner we had macaroni béchamel which is kind of like lasagne."

Angela handed the piece of paper back to Fareeha.

"See? Boring."

Fareeha's ears were red, and she snatched the rest of the letters up.

"I liked the pictures too. At first I thought a five-year-old drew them", said Angela.

"I wanted to be sure that you knew what macaroni béchamel looked like!" explained Fareeha.

"I'm just teasing, Fareeha. Your pictures of food were a stark contrast to the mech suit you drew… here. It's fantastic."

Angela knew which letter she wanted just from the position of the page in the stack. She plucked it from Fareeha's arms.

Fareeha's outraged expression softened.

"How well do you know these?" said Fareeha.

"I used to read them every time I went into battle."

"I see."

Fareeha's face was pensive as she rolled up the letters and put them back into Angela's staff.

"Do you mind if I sleep with Khalil tonight? I can't get any shut-eye without her", said Fareeha.

Angela tapped her chin with a finger, pretending to ponder the request.

"Sure thing, but she's staying in my bed tonight", said Angela.

"I'm sure there's enough space for the three of us", whispered Fareeha.

Angela smiled as the two of them settled down into a lying position.

"Athena. Lights off."

* * *

 **A/N: I just wanted to make it clear that the white blood cell-donating thing that Angela talked about is 100% made up. Other biology tidbits I threw in through this series are accurate though (doesn't include treating wounds. Or anything that has to do with nanobots).**

 **Speaking of which, in "A Mother's Diary", the bonus chapter where I wrote that we may know how to make babies using eggs from two mothers is also true, and it has already been done with mice. In this timeline, Ana can reasonably expect biological grandchildren (*wink*). If you're interested in the topic, google "Kaguya mouse" (I don't know how to insert links here)** **. If you follow the first reference on the Wikipedia page, it'll take you to the original Nature article, which is unfortunately hidden behind a paywall. If you can access it and can read scientific articles, I highly recommend giving it a look. It blew my mind the first time I read it.**


	16. Chapter 16

_Angela placed the pamphlet on the dining table. Angela's mother didn't even need to open it to know the information it contained. Her mouth settled into a grim line, and Angela knew she had no chance with her mother. Which was why the pamphlet was sitting in front of her father's plate._

" _Massachusetts Institute of Technology", read Angela's father._

" _I've already been accepted", said Angela._

" _Oh no. No no no no no", said Angela's mother. "I didn't even want you to go to Zürich! Now you want to leave the country?" she exclaimed._

" _I don't_ want _to leave the country. MIT is just one of the best schools. And I want the best for my education", said Angela._

" _You'll only be eight when you start!" gasped Angela's mother. You're barely more than a baby!"_

" _A Mensa baby that finished high school a year ago and have had nothing else to do for a year except win multiple awards across multiple disciplines", retorted Angela._

 _Angela's mother pulled at her hair with her right hand – something she always did when she was nervous or stressed._

" _What will you study?" asked Angela's father softly._

" _It was hard to decide, but I'm going with engineering for now", said Angela._

" _Ah yes, that does sound interesting", said Angela's father._

" _Schätzli!" objected Angela's mother. "Don't encourage her!"_

" _Papi!" said Angela, urging her father to come to her defence._

" _Now, now, let's try to stay calm", said Angela's father._

" _Calm?" exclaimed Angela's mother. "How can you ask me to be calm when we're talking about our daughter?"_

" _Angela has always been mature for her age. She doesn't seem happy here either. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad if we moved…"_

" _I can't believe this!" said Angela's mother, pulling so hard on her hair that it must have been painful. "I…!"_

 _Angela's mother stopped talking, closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly._

" _I need time to calm down. Can you leave me alone for a bit?" said Angela's mother._

 _Angela's father nodded and took Angela by the hand._

" _Come Spätzli, let's go outside. Why don't we fly some kites? You always liked that", said Angela's father._

" _Ok, but I want to get something first", said Angela, shaking off her father's hand and scampering off to her room._

 _Angela's father picked up Angela's kite, which he kept near the door in case of spontaneous outings like this. When Angela reappeared, an uncharacteristic frown emerged on his face._

" _You don't like kites anymore?" said Angela's father._

" _This is much better", said Angela, clutching the drone she had designed to her chest. "I can control my flight path with this."_

 _She looked up to her father, perplexed by the orientation of his lips. He noticed this, and instantly flipped his frown upside down into a charming smile._

" _Well, I don't mind, as long as I can spend time with my Spätzli", murmured Angela's father._

 _He tried to take Angela's hand again, but this time the little girl dodged it. She ran on ahead, acting like she hadn't even noticed his attempt._

 _Above the park, the sky was cloudy and the wind conditions weren't great. Angela had a smug look on her face as she had no problem getting her drone into the air while her father struggled with his kite._

" _Would you like me to make you a drone too, Papi? They're much more consistent and reliable than kites", said Angela._

" _No, but thank you Spätzli", said Angela's father. "Kites have their own charm."_

 _Finally, Angela's father managed to find a column of rising hot air, and once his kite was in the sky, it danced and twirled as happy as a kite could be._

 _Angela's eyes flicked between her drone and the symbol of the sparrow on the kite._

 _They were quiet for a while, as Angela thought about the best way to get support from her father to convince her mother to let her study abroad. There were many things that came easily to Angela. Math, science, the creativity required to imagine and make new things. But she was learning that interacting with humans, even the ones that raised her, wasn't as straightforward. She wasn't guaranteed to get what she wanted from other people, no matter how much effort she put into it._

 _Angela's father was the first to break the silence._

" _You know they speak English in America, right? Have you been secretly studying it this whole time?" said Angela's father._

" _Um, kind of", said Angela._

" _Oh? Can you understand this, then?" said Angela's father. "_ No matter how kind you are, German children are _kinder" said Angela's father in English, except for the last word._

 _Angela stared vacantly at her father._

" _I'm sure I'll pick it up when I go there", said Angela._

 _Angela's father laughed and ruffled her hair._

" _So, engineering, huh? I can't say I'm surprised, but I was kind of hoping that you might become a doctor, like me and Mami", said Angela's father._

" _I wouldn't mind", replied Angela. "But wouldn't it get boring once I've learned everything? It's much more fun to be at the forefront of science and technology."_

 _Angela's father laughed._

" _It really shakes up my confidence when my own daughter tells me that being a doctor is too easy. Makes me feel like all the white hair I got when I was medical student was for nothing."_

" _You see?" murmured Angela. "We're so different. How can you decide what's best for me when I'm capable of so much more than you can ever understand?"_

 _Angela's father gaped at his daughter._

" _Angela Ziegler! How can you say that? Please understand that Mami and I aren't trying to hold you back! We just want to keep us all together. We don't have any other family, after all."_

 _It was difficult for Angela to listen to that tone in her father's voice. It sounded so desperate. It took no effort at all to avoid looking at his face to watch her drone and his kite occupy their space in the sky._

" _Drones are much better than kites", decided Angela after a while. "They can go wherever they want."_

 _Angela's father was silent._

" _I made a drone because that's what I want to be. But right now, I'm that kite."_

" _Angela…"_

" _And if I'm that kite, then you and Mami are the string. All you do is hold me back."_

" _Angela, please…"_

 _Angela twitched her thumb on the controller, and her drone veered sharply to the right, straight towards the kite. In an instant, one of the drone's propellers found its way through the string near the base of the kite._

 _At first, Angela's father just watched with an open mouth as the kite with the little sparrow flew away, carried by currents of wind that he couldn't see._

 _And then, he was gone._

 _Angela didn't move from her spot as her father dashed off._

 _The pain she felt in her gut was unexpected._

 _She landed her drone at her feet and headed home._

" _Where's Papi?" Angela's mother asked her._

 _Angela just shrugged, grabbed some food, and headed to her room._

 _It was late at night when he finally came home._

 _He was sweaty and probably starving, but instead of taking time to catch his breath, he knocked on Angela's door and let himself in._

" _Spätzli. I am going to talk to Mami. We'll do our best to get you to where you need to be. If we have to pack up and move to America, then we'll do it._

 _There was nothing Angela wanted to hear more than those words, but her stomach still felt uncomfortable, and she was finding it hard to smile at her father. But at the very least, she owed him a try._

 _She approached her father and tugged on his shirt until he knelt down in front of her. Wordlessly, she adjusted his glasses that sat crooked on his nose. At first she didn't see the kite. The first thing she had noticed was his dirty clothes and the leaves in his hair. But when Angela was done with his glasses, her father moved his hands from behind his back to hug her, and that was when she saw it. It had a small rip, but he wouldn't have any problems fixing it._

" _You went after the kite?" said Angela. "Why? You should have just let it go."_

" _Even kites fall eventually without wind", said Angela's father. "But I promise that no matter how many times you fall, Papi will always be there to pick you up and bring you home."_

* * *

Angela awoke to two extremes. The first thing she noticed was that her legs seemed to be on fire. She instinctively tried to sit up to make sure the bed wasn't actually aflame, but was held back by the second source of discomfort.

The falcon plush known as Khalil that had rested as a barrier between her and Fareeha at start of the night had somehow found its way to their feet. In turn, the unconscious Fareeha had reacted to Angela's body heat, and was now snuggled against Angela's chest. That in itself was not what made Angela uncomfortable. The problem was that Fareeha had borrowed Angela's right arm to use as a pillow and Fareeha's heavy head cut off all the circulation, and Angela couldn't feel her hand anymore.

Angela twitched her fingers, wondering if they were still functional. Peeking over Fareeha's head, she saw them move, and was glad to see them obey her request. Angela fumbled with a bottle of generic painkillers she kept nearby with her free hand before addressing her other problem.

At first Angela felt like yanking her arm free. She also needed to ask for stronger painkillers after all. But she lost her resolve upon further inspection. It would be such a shame to wake Fareeha. She looked so peaceful. There was something about Fareeha's face when it was free of any emotion, or in particular, shielded by the look of wariness she had wearing recently. It reminded Angela of when Fareeha was younger, when she smiled and laughed without inhibition.

Angela had been around enough soldiers to know that death changes people. In different ways than being exposed to it as a doctor. She herself had entered the Swiss military long before she was ready or was previously permitted under the law: such was the desperation for able-bodies in the fight against rogue omnics. In that time the major armed forces were more militia than army. And Angela wasn't the only person there who had just reached an age, where instead of drinking wine and beer in celebration, were now drinking to cope with pain.

With the vast amount of civilians willing to sacrifice their lives to fight in the First Omnic Crisis, a surprisingly large amount of people got away with their minds intact. After all, shooting the head off a robot was nothing like doing the equivalent to a human. And at first Angela had no problem doing the same. For one thing it almost felt like a super immersive video game. Secondly, she justified that she only did it in self-defence, with her priority being to aid the injured. But that changed when she realized that despite the lack of blood, omnics suffered just as much as humans.

Angela reached out with her free hand, and did something bold that she had fantasized about doing for a long time now. Gently, gently, as if she were trying to catch a bubble without popping it, she touched her fingertips to the tattoo under Fareeha's right eye. Knowing how sensitive the face was, Angela had no doubt that the two simple, black lines did not feel so simple when they were etched into Fareeha's skin. When Fareeha explained the tattoo to Angela for the first time, Angela had assumed that she had done it in memory of her late mother. Only when it turned out that Ana was alive and Fareeha knew it the whole time did Angela realize that she had done it for herself.

Angela felt her hand moving down Fareeha's face, feeling somewhat like it was out of her control, as if gravity were pulling her hand horizontally instead of towards the core of the planet. Her fingers ran over high cheekbones and a soft cheek before coming to a stop at the corner of Fareeha's mouth. The cheeks used to be fuller, once, filled with baby fat that didn't melt away until Fareeha reached adolescence. She used to be so innocent then. Angela now knew about the moment the innocence ended, about the first omnic life Fareeha took and later, the first human she killed. Angela was glad that she hadn't been around when it happened, to see Fareeha mutate from child to adult. It was the same way that she was glad that her parents hadn't been alive to see the same happen to Angela.

Angela released a stale breath of air that she didn't know she had been holding. Her hand moved again, lower, over the bump of Fareeha's chin, down the valley of her throat, and followed the chain that her dog tags were attached to. In the back of her mind, Angela thought about her own set dangling around her neck, and how grateful she was that they didn't have to serve their purpose after the incident with Gabriel on the roof. She moved lower still until she reached the beginning of the swell of Fareeha's breasts. She lingered for a while, gathering her courage until she pressed down firmly, searching for her treasure until the found it: the first of the thump of Fareeha's heartbeat, the proof that life still streamed through her veins. Angela sighed and splayed her fingers out, filing away the complaint that her other hand vocalized, jealous of its sister for their master's preferential treatment, where it couldn't feel anything at all.

Angela didn't know how many lives Fareeha had taken. Fareeha couldn't tell her because she didn't even know, wouldn't keep track. Even though two decades had passed since Angela had first met Fareeha, Fareeha was still playing the hero, but now her actions had serious repercussions. Angela had questioned Fareeha's use of force, but Fareeha just shook her head, explaining that she only took lives as a last resort. Indeed, thanks to Helix Security's policy on transparency, Angela knew that this was true, that Fareeha's "kill everything" team was only called in when there were no other alternative.

For a long time Angela believed she walked the moral high ground, congratulating herself for being better than her teammates who specialized in taking lives rather than saving them. But what if she were just delusional the whole time? Saving lives did not guarantee quality of life. How could she have been arrogant enough to call herself "Mercy" without ever thinking it through?

She thought about the options Fareeha gave her the night before. Tweak her worldview. Accept her flaws but do nothing about it. Ignore it. Was that how Fareeha could be at ease with herself, how she could sleep at night? Had she just been ignoring things that damaged her reputation, things that would send her spiralling into despair? Maybe Angela could do the same. Fareeha would never judge her for following her lead.

Angela stared at Fareeha's lips, slightly parted even though she breathed through her nose, and measured exactly how long it took for Fareeha to inhale after each exhale.

She wondered then, what she would do if Fareeha were in Gabriel's position, hanging off the edge of life, staring at her with those giant, fearful eyes. Would she have let Fareeha die in that situation? Maybe take it herself to alleviate her suffering?

No.

Angela felt a pang in her chest.

She would never be able to let Fareeha die.

But what if Fareeha contracted an illness with no cure that took her life slowly and painfully? Would Angela force Fareeha to suffer as Angela stubbornly worked to find a cure? What if Fareeha begged for an end?

"Fareeha", murmured Angela.

She wasn't sure why she said her name, but as soon as it was out, she did it again, relishing the way each syllable moved, from the front of her mouth to the back. Absurdly, despite the nightmare that plagued the conscious Angela, she smiled to herself.

What if, what if, what if. Asking these questions now weren't useful or constructive. Fareeha wasn't dying. She was sturdy and healthy. Angela shook her head out, trying to chase away the pain she was inflicting upon herself. It was far worse than any sort of physical pain she had ever experienced. Even though her right arm still suffered from loss of feeling and her legs still burned.

But the more Angela looked at Fareeha's sleeping face, the more she calmed. It had changed a lot through the years, with sharper lines, a more pronounced jaw and cheekbones, and fuller lips. Despite this, Angela could still find the young Fareeha, the one she met before she could be accomplished enough to clear out an enemy unit when they were outnumbered twenty to one, halt a tank in a crowded city, or be recognized by strangers upon sight. That normal, _boring_ , girl. The girl who would grow up to one day plant the idea in Angela's head that maybe this wasn't the life she wanted for herself, for either of them.

She leaned towards the beautiful woman that Fareeha had become, until they breathed the same air, revelling in her warmth, and the sensation of Fareeha's heart beating into her palm. What would Fareeha say if Angela told her she wanted to take a break from this life, just to figure things out? Or maybe even longer that that.

Angela wanted to indulge in this idea, if she and Fareeha left and started anew somewhere else. Maybe Fareeha could be a martial arts instructor, passing along the skills she had learned from her mother. Angela would fit in easily into any hospital; there wasn't one in the world that wouldn't take her. They could get a normal, boring house, in a normal, boring neighbourhood, painted in a rich blue and surrounded with a white, picket fence. They'd get a pet – Angela had always wanted a dog – and they'd invite the neighbours over for dinner, and go on dates to watch cheesy, romantic movies, and go grocery shopping together, and make chocolate fondue at home on cold nights, and she'd come home after a long day at work and Fareeha would be there along with the kids and, and…

Angela promptly flushed and resisted the temptation to kick her injured legs as if she were riding a bike, trying to contain the squeal that demanded release from her throat as she recalled the last bit of her imaginary sequence. Kids! She never gave the idea of having her own children any thought. After all, she figured she'd never even have a partner, deciding she may as well put together a wedding ceremony to declare her love and devotion to science.

Oh, but what was she doing! Already imagining a future with Fareeha, when their relationship status was still in muddy waters, and when they hadn't even kissed yet…

Angela's eyes dropped to Fareeha's lips. A kiss, huh. Angela was grateful that Fareeha was such a heavy sleeper that she didn't wake up during her little outburst. If she wouldn't wake up for that, she'd never know if Angela sneaked a taste of those soft lips. She debated internally with herself, trying to decide how wrong it would be to kiss an unconscious person. But the part of herself that was so absorbed in _want_ versus the rational part of her was starting to win out and Angela was slowly closing the gap between her and Fareeha…

"Oh yes… do it… do it…"

Angela's head reared abruptly, alarmed with the knowledge that she was not the one who whispered those words.

She made eye-contact with a white-haired woman, standing next to an open door. Her camera had just been raised to her good eye before she had been caught, and had since dropped to chest-level.

"Shoot, did I say that out loud?"

"Ana!" exclaimed Angela. "How long have you been standing there?!"

"Just before you woke up?" said Ana. "I figured I could sneak in and ensure that I would have sufficient… documentation to tell an entertaining story to the grandkids about how their parents got together…" Ana raised herself onto the tips of her toes, and searched for bits of Angela and Fareeha that their blanket failed to cover. "Oh, you are both still clothed. I was hoping that after last night…"

"I can't believe you, Ana!" shrieked Angela. "And just for the record, nothing happened last night! We didn't talk about what you think…"

"Shhhh", said Ana, holding a finger to her lips. "You are going to wake Fareeha."

Angela's lips clamped together at the mention of Fareeha, and she cast a worried look at her sleeping partner.

Ana smirked, raised her camera to her eye, and took a picture.

A vein throbbed in Angela's temple, and before she knew it, she roared and threw her arms into the air, rolling a poor Fareeha off her and sending her tumbling to the floor.

"Huh? What?" sputtered a dazed Fareeha.

Angela's right arm prickled pins and needles as it woke up with Fareeha. She tried to jump to her feet before the pain in her legs reminded her that she was forced into immobility.

"Good morning, habibti", Ana said to Fareeha. "And goodbye, Angela", she finished, blowing a kiss at both women before strutting casually out the door.

* * *

 **A/N: If I ever write a story with domestic Angela and Fareeha, Fareeha would totally be a lawyer that works pro bono from home.**


	17. Chapter 17

_Angela awoke to the sound of the TV, which had been set to a news channel as her alarm clock._

" _The death toll of the Omnic Crisis continues to increase, with a new conflict emerging in Greece. Today we welcome a panel of experts to discuss the God Program, and the tension between humans and uninfected omnics. We hope to answer why we are seeing more outbreaks of violence in certain countries than others. Here in America, while there have been a few cases, we are relatively safe, compared to…"_

 _Angela turned off the TV and headed towards the kitchen, where she was greeted by the sight of freshly-made bacon, toast, and scrambled eggs._

" _Good morning, Angela", said Marshall, setting butter on the table. "Did you sleep well?"_

 _Marshall was a moderately-sized omnic, hired as Angela's caretaker while her parents were away serving the Swiss army as medics. On his first day, Angela's father had assured Marshall that he didn't need to dress so formally, but it turned out that Marshall just had a keen taste in fashion._

 _Angela nodded vigorously, mouth too full of food to respond properly._

" _You seem chipper than usual", said Marshall. "Did something good happen?"_

 _As usual, Angela inhaled her breakfast. With the exception of treats like chocolate, she had a firm belief that eating simply served the purpose of filling the gas tank, and the faster she ate, the more time she had for work. Marshall didn't have to wait long for a response._

" _Mami and Papi sent me a hologram last night saying that they have been given leave to come to my convocation", said Angela through a smile._

" _Ah yes, congratulations! I believe you'll be tied as the youngest university graduate in modern history", said Marshall._

" _I'd be the youngest if my birthday didn't fall so early in the year!" said Angela._

" _Life isn't a competition. There's no need to rush", said Marshall._

" _Even if you say that, I'm still excited for the next step. Engineering was fun, but I was thinking of trying out biology next. I might skip the Master's and go straight into a Ph.D. Hey, Marshall. If I move someplace else, maybe even back to Switzerland for school, will you come too?"_

 _Marshall laughed as gently as his mechanical voice would let him._

" _I'm flattered that you want me to stay with you. But my home is here. And America is one of the few countries in the world where omnics have equal rights under the law."_

" _Awww, that's too bad", said Angela, emptying out her glass of orange juice._

" _Do you like it here in America?" said Marshall._

" _Eh, kind of", said Angela, getting up and putting away her dish. "It took me a while to learn English proficiently. And I never made any friends."_

" _That's too bad. Well, I'm sure you're looking forward to seeing your friends back home!"_

" _Oh… um… sure. In any case, it'll be easier for Mami and Papi to visit me if we're in the same country."_

" _You're parents are lovely folk. I look forward to seeing them again soon", said Marshall cheerfully._

* * *

While Angela waited for the results from the lab and for MeiLing's approval to continue with her treatments, she received no shortage of visits from her teammates. Some members that she wasn't particularly close to, such as Satya and Mako only popped by to say hello once (at least that's what Angela assumed Mako said under that mask of his). For his part, Jamison was surprisingly sweet and made a get-well-soon card by hand. Reportedly, he had initially bought a bouquet of flowers, but he had left them in his room and forgot about them until a small explosion burnt them to a crisp. Even Torbjörn took some time off from his children and flew in from Sweden to wish her well in person.

Ana and Reinhardt were always present to provide the company she needed. In addition, it seemed like Jesse was starting to take after Reinhardt. Jesse was also always around to tell her some wild anecdote about how he "saved the day" in the past. Angela put up with him because he sneaked in chocolate every so often. If Ana caught him, Jesse and Angela watched her left eyebrow twitch insistently up and down, as if there were a deeply-engrained habit to limit the source of sugar, but she knew that Angela was a fully-grown adult who could get fat off of chocolate and bed-rest if she wanted to.

Fareeha didn't actually spend as much time with Angela as Angela wanted her to. Well, that was an unfair assessment. If Angela had her way, Fareeha would be spending all day and night with her. But as soon as Fareeha found out that there was an alternative treatment for Angela's injury, she rushed off to the lab to help MeiLing and Athena figure out how the technique worked. Fareeha had no background in biology, MeiLing only had the experience of molecular biology from her undergraduate years, Athena only had the wisdom of the internet behind her, but at least they had Angela's constant supervision via hologram. Angela had put Fareeha in charge of grunt work, but Fareeha soaked up all the theoretical knowledge with an astonishing amount curiosity. Angela thought back to how MeiLing had credited her initial attraction to Aleksandra to the other woman's interest in her work. Angela had thought it was silly at the time. But sometimes Angela did wish she could talk to someone other than Winston and MeiLing about what she was working on. She had always summarized it in a few words for Fareeha when she asked (and she asked a lot). Maybe Fareeha had always been interested in the details, and Angela wondered why she never gave them to her.

The only person that didn't show up at all was Genji. By the time that he did, Fareeha and MeiLing had already begun treatments on Angela.

It was Fareeha that dragged him in. According to Fareeha, Genji had only just returned from the hospital where the rest of the team had given up on stealing nanobots for Angela. He was the only one who had the resolve to stay and acquire the nanobots for her.

"Hello, Angela", greeted Genji.

Angela's eyes narrowed from Genji's use of the English pronunciation of her name. He only ever called her by it, ever since Angela had introduced herself after he opened his eyes for the first time, when he thought he was dead. But Angela would never get used to it. Still, she had stopped trying to correct him years ago.

"Hello", returned Angela, forcing a small smile onto her face.

"I did not want to appear before you until I could prepare a gift", said Genji. "But when I tried to pass the nanobots to Fareeha so she could give them to you, she brought me here instead."

Fareeha read the "why?" on Angela's face, and answered her question before Angela needed to open her mouth.

"I wanted you to talk to him as soon as you told me what happened on the roof", said Fareeha.

The "w" of the next "why" started to form on Angela's lips, and Fareeha answered again before Angela needed to vocalize anything.

"You need it", she said.

A cold feeling crept up Angela's spine, and she rubbed the back of her neck in an attempt to keep it from rising any further. She knew exactly what Fareeha wanted her to ask Genji, but suddenly her tongue felt like it weighed as much as an elephant. It was probably as big as one too.

"What happened on the roof?" asked Genji.

The answer was something Angela didn't feel like disclosing to Genji at this time, so she did what Fareeha wanted her to instead.

"Genji, do you hate me?" said Angela.

Angela assumed Genji looked at her. At least, he was facing her. He couldn't remove the lower part of his mask because it wasn't actually a mask, but his jaw. His original jaw had been destroyed when Hanzo had tried to kill him years ago. But since he had just come back from his mission, Genji also left the top part of his mask on. As such, she couldn't see his face. It was something Angela hated when she talked to omnics because there was so much information missing without facial cues to work off of. At the very least, Zenyatta never said anything he didn't mean. Bastion couldn't speak English at all. But underneath Genji's mask, his eyes could be saying anything, and Angela would never know.

"No, I do not hate you", said Genji.

Genji used a calm voice. It was one that had been acquired. She knew about the time when he was part of Blackwatch, when he seethed with rage, and it often came through in his voice. Now he had found peace with himself, but even that calm and peaceful voice wasn't technically real. It came from a mechanical voice box that Angela had tried to make sound as similar to his original voice as she guessed based on his vocal cords, but she had missed the mark by a decent margin. When Genji encountered Hanzo years after Genji had been turned into a cyborg, his own brother couldn't recognize him through his new voice.

"Really? Not even after what I put you through?" said Angela.

"Definitely not", said Genji without hesitation.

Angela felt incredibly tense in her lower back. Was that the answer she wanted to hear? It didn't feel like it.

"However, I did hate myself", admitted Genji. "I hated myself for a long time, but I have come a long way since."

"That was misdirected", determined Angela. "You should've been angry at me."

"I could never hate the woman who saved my life", replied Genji.

"But..."

"The self-hatred did not start right away. At the very beginning I was just grateful to still be alive. I even found it a little interesting that I had become a cyborg. What sounds cooler than "cyborg ninja"? I was thankful to you and Overwatch for letting me join Blackwatch to bring vengeance against the Shimada clan and cut them down like they tried with me. In truth, the violence was an excellent distraction from what would come later."

Angela had read some of this through the letter Genji had written to her shortly before the recall. Perhaps he had written it as part of his recovery process. What surprised Angela was that he wanted to say it again, and even more surprising that he was willing to let Fareeha hear. He really had made great progress towards accepting himself.

"But when things settled down, it was frustrating", continued Genji. "It then dawned on me that I had used my newly acquired body to murder many of the same people I grew up around. Some of them were family. And then other problems arose. I no longer had the freedom to go into public without people staring. People treated me like an omnic instead of a human. I no longer had the means to do whatever I wanted. But I have since grown past such trivialities. Master Zenyatta has put me on the path towards enlightenment. I have let go of such earthly attachments, although I admit that I have a long way to go."

"But I… I made you suffer for so long…" said Angela.

"No, I made myself suffer. What you gave me was a chance at redemption. If it weren't for you I would still be running around aimlessly, buying women's affections with money. Through losing my human body, I have become much more human. Even though I did suffer, I would not go back and change what happened even if I could."

It did feel good to hear all this, but Angela didn't feel the relief she longed for. Sure, Genji found peace with himself, but she didn't think Gabriel ever would.

"I realize that I have never done this formally", said Genji. "But…" Genji strode forward until he was right next to Angela's bed. Then, he took a deep bow. "Thank you, Angela."

He reached out carefully, and with the upmost gentleness, placed a vial of nanobots onto Angela's upturned palm.

"This was the least I could do for you, Angela", said Genji.

Angela stared at the nanobots in her hand. Genji's gesture had a strong impact: nobody else could do what he did. But all she could think of was that if Fareeha had given her the nanobots, the vial would have been warm from Fareeha's body heat. Instead, the cold glass drained energy from her.

Time ticked by as Angela was lost in thought, and upon realizing that she hadn't said anything for a while, Angela blurted the first thing that came to mind in an attempt to avoid being rude. What came out turned out to be just as rude.

"Why do you insist on calling me "Angela"?" said Angela, emphasizing the way Genji mispronounced her name.

"It suits you more. Because you are an angel", said Genji.

"But even if you use the German pronunciation, it still has the same meaning", pointed out Angela.

"Yes, but you are _my_ angel", said Genji. "You saved _my_ life and I will not let myself forget it.

It was the regret at blurting the question that gave Angela the willpower to avoid rolling her eyes. Instead, she looked past Genji at Fareeha, who caught the tiny facial change that was tick of exasperation on Angela's face. Fareeha contorted her facial features in her best "what the fuck?" face that she knew Angela wanted to make, and shrugged.

Angela choked on her effort to suppress her laughter, but somehow managed to maintain a decent poker face. It didn't seem like Genji noticed the lapse in her demeanour.

"I will forever be thankful for what you have done for me, and truly, I owe you my life", continued Genji.

Angela suddenly sobered. "It was nothing", responded Angela with a mechanical voice. "It was my job as a doctor."

 _But was it your job as a scientist to turn him into a killing machine?_ said that voice in the back of her head.

Angela barely noticed her vision going hazy, and Fareeha must have noticed her eyes glazing over.

"Angela?" came Fareeha's concerned voice.

"Huh?" said Angela, snapping out of whatever she was about to enter.

"Genji, if you don't mind, I think Angela's getting sleepy from the painkillers. Maybe if you could let her nap…" said Fareeha.

"Well, you can let the nanobots heal you, and you will not need painkillers anymore", said Genji.

"Oh, I…" started Angela.

She stared at the nanobots again.

"This is a lot", said Angela. "Way more than I need. This amount can treat ten different people."

"Oh, my mistake", said Genji. "It looked like so little, I was not sure it would be enough…"

"And that's ten people less that the hospital you took this from can treat. No, this isn't right, Genji. Please, take it back", said Angela.

"That is not a problem", said Genji. "Use what you need and I will bring back the remainder to the hospital…"

"No", interrupted Angela. "I will not need it. I have already begun an alternative treatment, and I have the upmost confidence that it will work."

"Is that so?" said Genji.

His voice was as flat and tranquil-sounding as ever. What was Genji feeling? Was he disappointed? Frustrated that he went through so much trouble for nothing? If Angela couldn't tell through his voice, her inability to see past his mask meant she wouldn't find out unless she asked.

Angela could see the conflicting emotions on Fareeha's face. It was the way her lips were pursed together, her eyes were slightly narrowed, and the subtle way her eyebrows shifted that most wouldn't notice unless they watched her eyebrows through a microscope. It was a face that said, _"I want you to get better, but stealing from a hospital is wrong and I am so proud of you"._

This was what gave Angela the confidence that she had made the correct choice.

"Yes", said Angela.

She grabbed Genji's wrist, and shoved the vial of nanobots in his hand. His cyborg hand could feel, of course, but it was nothing like what he would have felt before his transformation. Angela had designed it to sense pressure, but to not signal pain to Genji's brain for anything unless it could actually destroy the metal, which happened to be very little. The difference in pain sensation was part of what made a cyborg ninja especially lethal.

"Take it back. I am not in danger of dying, and perhaps I will learn something from this suffering too", said Angela.

"That is impossible", said Genji. "You have nothing to learn. You are already perfect."

Angela suddenly found it hard to breathe. It was as if all the air inside her was stuck in her lungs and she couldn't relax her diaphragm enough to let it out.

"That's enough", said Fareeha immediately, firmly this time. "Genji, thank you for taking the time to talk to Angela. But she needs rest now. And the hospital needs its nanobots back."

"Yes, of course", replied Genji. Again, Angela couldn't tell what he was thinking. Annoyance from receiving an order from an equal? Relief that he could finally escape the awkward situation?

Even before Genji had left the room, Fareeha rushed to Angela's side, and settled next to her.

Fareeha peeled Angela off the pillow supporting her back, with just enough space to place one giant, warm hand on Angela's back. Then she began to rub large circles. Clockwise, at exactly one circle per second.

Angela's diaphragm loosened, and Fareeha knew she didn't have to worry about Angela turning blue from the lack of oxygen when Angela relaxed against Fareeha's shoulder.

Just as Angela knew that the sound of a person's heartbeat calmed Fareeha, Fareeha knew how to comfort Angela.

"Thank you", whispered Angela.

"I'm so sorry", said Fareeha. "I didn't expect that to happen. I just thought…"

"I know", said Angela. "I know."

Angela was breathing normally, but Fareeha kept rubbing her back anyway, slowly this time. She melted into Fareeha's chest. Angela could feel Fareeha's breath move over the top of her head like a chinook.

Fareeha smelled a little like coffee, which Angela knew Fareeha didn't drink. But she did make tiramisu from time-to-time, and Angela guessed that that was what her afternoon snack was going to be.

* * *

 _Angela wasn't one who cared for ceremonies. They were boring and seemed like a waste of time. But her parents had been excited for it, and gushed for a month over hologram about how proud they were of Angela, and which cameras would be the best at capturing the special moment._

 _For that reason, it was extremely strange that her phone was silent on the day of her convocation. Her parents were supposed to arrive a week prior to the ceremony, but they called shortly before their flight telling Angela that there had been an emergency, and a shortage of medics meant that they had to stay on the battlefront for a few more days, cutting it close to their reunion. After that day, the communication stopped. Angela got more and more worried each day, calling whenever she had the opportunity, but there was nothing._

 _So on the day of her convocation, she watched jealously as her peers laughed and posed in photo shoots with their friends, with their never-ending supply of hugs from parents._

It's not fair _, thought Angela, adjusting the hood on her regalia for the umpteenth time (she still had no idea how far back it was supposed to sit)._

 _Soon, her graduating class were rounded up and marched into the ceremony hall. Angela took her seat and for the next thirty minutes or so, swivelled her eyes around in every direction, hoping to catch a glimpse of her parents. Sure, they missed their original flight. But maybe they'd appear at the last moment, when it mattered most?_

 _At least Marshall was there. Angela caught sight of him on a balcony, a storey above where she was sitting. He saw her and waved. He was using his phone's camera that wasn't going to make the greatest shots, but would still capture the moment just fine. He hadn't planned on attending the ceremony at first, but when Angela's parents didn't show, he cleared his schedule to make sure somebody would be there for her._

 _The convocation went without a hitch. Angela was called up when it was her turn to receive her diploma, and again when she was given several awards for her academic achievements. It was only at the end, when Angela had returned her hood and gown when she was approached by two soldiers in uniform she didn't know._

" _Are you Angela Ziegler?" said one of them in Swiss German._

 _They held their caps in their hands._

 _A few months later, Angela was back in the village she grew up in. She wasn't going to be there long._

 _She marched through the streets, ignoring words of condolences thrown in her direction by neighbours who had known her for her whole life. The garden had once been well-kept, full of leafy, green vegetables that Angela's father kept healthy. Now patches of brown dirt showed through the weeds that dominated the area._

 _The house was the same as it was when she and her parents left it, albeit covered with a couple years' worth of dust. She barely took a step inside. She reached past the front door, and grabbed a kite, one that was adorned with a stylized picture of a little sparrow._

 _She took her time walking to the park, cradling the kite under one arm. The tear in the kite had long since been repaired, and was still fully capable of flying._

 _It was the middle of a work day, so the park was deserted. The sun was bright and the sky was cloudless. Angela wondered what she looked like from above._

 _She took her kite out from under her arm and held it above her, staring at the symbol of the sparrow._

 _She realized now that she had made a mistake. Her parents weren't the kite string. They were the wind that pushed the kite forward, keeping it in the air._

 _Then, she reached into her pocket, pulled out a lighter, and held it to the kite._

 _She watched as the flames consumed the kite, letting go when the flames got too close to her fingers._

 _What good was a kite, after all, when there was no wind?_

* * *

In several weeks, Angela was on her feet again. The alternative treatment had been a success. And despite the infection she had picked up, the hospital that had treated her actually did a decent job. However, there were times when she still needed painkillers.

Fareeha wasn't surprised when the first thing Angela wanted to do was to go back to her lab in Gibraltar.

"Do you need equipment we left behind?" said Fareeha.

"Yes, but I also need to do something", said Angela.

Athena was there to greet the two of them when they got to the watchpoint.

"Welcome back", said Athena.

"Winston said he restored you here with more complex firewalls", said Angela. "But just in case, I'm going to add in a few more layers of protection before we leave."

"That would be much appreciated", said Athena.

When Angela was done, she and Fareeha proceeded to the lab. Angela was pretty sure that Talon was no longer interested in them because Gabriel had accomplished what he had set out to do, but Fareeha kept a gun out the whole time.

As Fareeha started loading up a trolley with several pieces of expensive equipment, Angela made a beeline for her computer. There was no hesitation in her actions. It took her all her days of recovery to set her resolve.

Fareeha had a glimpse of the computer screen as she worked, and stopped to make a comment.

"A factory reset? If you were worried about security, surely we could have just brought the whole computer back with us to Grand Mesa…" started Fareeha.

"Athena. Delete the back-up files I gave you", commanded Angela.

"All of them?" asked Athena for confirmation.

"All of them", said Angela.

"Angela… what…" said Fareeha.

"I properly disposed the blood samples back in Grand Mesa", said Angela. "And I shredded my lab book."

"Wait, why…" said Fareeha.

"Just one last thing", said Angela.

She reached into her pocket, and dropped her USB drive to the floor.

"Hold on!" said Fareeha. She frantically looked for an open space to set down the machine she was holding that was worth millions of dollars.

And then Angela's boot came crashing down on the USB drive. She wasn't sure if it did the trick, so she repeated the action. Over and over again.

There wasn't time for moisture to accumulate in the corners of her eyes. In fact, her eyes were painfully dry. And yet, she continued stomping until she felt Fareeha wrap her arms around her from behind.

Fareeha didn't try to stop her. She just held her and hummed a slow melody as Angela tried to swallow her heart, which was lodged in her throat.

"It's gone", gasped Angela. "Twenty years of my legacy project. It's gone now."

Fareeha didn't say anything. She just kept humming. Angela not only heard Fareeha's song, but she could feel it through the part of her back that was pressed against Fareeha's chest. It was deep and slow, almost like a whale's call for companionship in an empty ocean.

"All this time. All the research I did. It was all for myself. I know what you're going to say. That I saved so many lives with my research. But injecting myself with nanobots until the day I decide to give up on immortality? Who was that for, but myself? This whole time, I've been _pretending_. That being a good doctor meant I was a good person. That I did all this for the world. But I've been lying to myself the whole time."

Fareeha waited until she was sure that Angela was done. And then she waited a bit more until Angela's breathing evened out.

"You can't fault yourself for not being perfect. You're only human. And like all humans, there are many different parts of you. But the scientist. The part of you that you hate? It's not evil", said Fareeha.

"How can you say that for sure?" said Angela.

"I can't", admitted Fareeha. "I won't claim to know you better than you do. But if what you need is a different perspective, I'm here for you. My position is the same if you just need someone to listen. And if you need space…" Fareeha let go of Angela and took a step back. "I promise I'll always be an arm's reach away if you need me again."

Angela closed her eyes. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to see if she could satisfactorily substitute Fareeha's warm arms.

It wasn't the same.

Angela turned around and rushed into Fareeha's waiting arms. She clenched her jaw and dug her fingertips into the cloth covering Fareeha's chest.

"Don't make promises you can't keep", said Angela fiercely.

"I'm confident I can keep this one", whispered Fareeha.


	18. Chapter 18

Angela didn't have her own bed anymore. Neither did Fareeha. Sure, there was an unclaimed bed above the one she and Fareeha shared, but that was occupied by Khalil now.

When Angela had come to her senses and realized how selfish she had been for hogging the falcon plush all to herself, she reluctantly returned it. But at that point, Fareeha had been sleeping in her bed for so long that when given the choice to sleep with Angela or Khalil, Fareeha chose the former. Fareeha may have been bed mates with Khalil longer, but Khalil couldn't hold Fareeha the way Angela did.

Angela now had the mobility to roam about as she wished, but there wasn't anywhere she wanted to go in particular. She had yet to visit the lab at Watchpoint: Grand Mesa, and for the first time in her life, she couldn't think of any new projects to work on. Instead, she was much more inclined to stay in bed. But no matter how many times her heavy eyelids closed, she never felt like she could get enough sleep.

She continued to get visits from the other Overwatch members, but some of them tired her out even more. Jesse's jokes and pick-me-ups had good intentions behind them, but Angela found herself forcing laughs more often than not. Ana and Reinhardt knew something was different about Angela, and gave their advice, including getting more fresh air, more sunlight, things of that sort. Genji brought a box of high-end Swiss chocolates, wrapped carefully and topped with a golden bow.

Angela didn't have the stomach for the chocolate, but Genji seemed to be watching her expectedly – it was hard to tell even without his mask on – so she forced a smile as she unwrapped the confections, and placed a piece of chocolate in her mouth. Her tongue said it tasted delicious, but her brain said it was no different from grey mush.

Zenyatta stopped by plenty of times, but he and Angela rarely engaged in anything outside of small talk. Angela had a feeling that he was waiting for her to open herself to him first. But a combination of the old habit of keeping to herself and her current frame of mind meant that the only way Zenyatta would be able to help was by prying Angela open by force – something that he refused to do.

Several weeks after she and Fareeha returned from Gibraltar, Angela woke up normally like on any other day since then. Fareeha carefully shifted out of the warm embrace of Angela's arms to get out of bed and start her day. They had since found a way of arranging their limbs during the night to keep Angela's arms from going numb, but Fareeha had yet to come up with a method of escaping without waking Angela in the morning. Fareeha hadn't actually realized this because Angela always feigned sleep.

So, unbeknownst to Fareeha, Angela flourished under Fareeha's morning ritual of gently stroking Angela's hair off her face before straightening and doing a little stretch. Angela peeked through her eyelashes to see Fareeha reach for a hairbrush.

Given the sounds of distant thunder, it didn't seem like the weather was that great. Nonetheless, Fareeha opened the room's tiny window. Like the watchpoint in Gibraltar, the only windows that could open in the base at Grand Mesa were too small for an adult to escape through. But even if Angela couldn't step through them, the opening of this window allowed a breeze to sweep away some of the stale air that Angela didn't know had been suffocating her.

Angela couldn't pry her eyes away from the figure in front of her just an arm's reach away. The light that came in through the window was dull. But whether it was through dawn's flattering rays or the grey, stormy light, Fareeha exuded her own brilliance and didn't need any particular lighting to make her look good.

"You're beautiful", said Angela matter-of-factly. She didn't say it with the purpose of scoring any sort of brownie points with Fareeha. The thought came to her suddenly and she didn't care to hold back this truth.

Fareeha started and spun around on the spot.

"Oh, sorry, did I wake you?" said Fareeha.

"You always do", said Angela, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. "I always want to tell you to come back to bed, but that'd be selfish."

Fareeha's face was soft as she sat down on the mattress.

"It's ok to be selfish sometimes", said Fareeha.

"Not when people need me", said Angela. She paused. "But sometimes I want to be selfish with you."

"It'd be an honour to be the exception", said Fareeha with a small smile.

Then Fareeha suddenly started beaming and Angela didn't know why until she realized she was smiling back.

Fareeha reached out and ran a gentle thumb over Angela's cheekbone.

"Look at you. Your bed head is especially impressive today", she teased.

"It's always a hopeless mess", said Angela, already reaching up to flatten her hair with her hands.

"Here, turn around", said Fareeha, and Angela obeyed.

She let Fareeha run her hairbrush through her tangled locks, wincing when the hairbrush got stuck on a knot. But Fareeha adjusted her technique following her first mistake, and the rest of the brushing session went without a hitch.

"There, all sorted out", said Fareeha, letting Angela turn back to face Fareeha. "What's wrong?" she asked, noticing the way Angela looked at her strangely.

"It's my turn now, isn't it?" said Angela.

Fareeha chuckled softly before handing Angela the hairbrush.

Given that Fareeha had already brushed her hair meant that there wasn't much for Angela to do. Still, she ran the brush through Fareeha's hair as slowly as she could.

The two women savoured the peaceful moment, silence interrupted only by the sound of scarce yet bulky raindrops that beat an irregular cadence against the windowsill. Whether the clouds would give way to a steady downpour was uncertain. Only time would tell whether the clouds would pass peacefully, but until then, the threat loomed low and heavy in the sky.

Once Angela had combed every last strand of Fareeha's hair, Fareeha instinctively reached up to braid the hair framing her face, but stilled when her fingers realized that Angela's hands were already there. They touched their fingertips together for just a moment before letting go. Fareeha cocked her head to one side, giving Angela easier access to the side of her face.

It took Angela a couple of tries to get the first braid right. The first attempt was neat enough, but it didn't look enough like Fareeha's usual braid. She had watched Fareeha weave together her tresses enough times to know what adjustment to make for it to be perfect, and soon enough Fareeha approved enough to hand Angela one gold ornament to tie off the base of the braid. Angela repeated this three more times until Fareeha looked like her usual self.

At this point, Angela half-expected Ana to pop out of nowhere, donning her characteristic smirk. Ana was famous for her ability to capture candid moments, but interrupted them more often than not in the process. Thankfully, ever since Angela's legs had recovered, Ana had moved out of the room.

Although the team had moved into a new building, they mostly kept the same sleeping arrangements. The only difference was that Ana and Fareeha had swapped rooms. MeiLing still stored her belongings in Angela's room, but hadn't spent a night there. For that reason, Angela didn't feel bad about locking the door to the room at night, to keep out mischievous Anas and Jesses who were pulling more morning "pranks" than ever before.

It had started with her waking up to a house of cards balanced on top of her and Fareeha. The next time, Fareeha woke up with her arm hanging off the bed and her hand in a bowl of water. Neither Fareeha nor Angela knew what the purpose of that was until they looked it up and found out it was supposed to result in a wet bed.

At first Fareeha had taken the shenanigans in good humour, waving off Angela's opinion that they should start locking the door, until the natural laws of ironic fate ordained that this statement should be punished by Fareeha waking up to every inch of the floor covered by glasses of water. The snickering outside the door indicated that both Ana and Jesse had been involved, and once Angela and Fareeha cleared a path, Fareeha started after them, expecting Angela to follow. She had stopped in her tracks when Angela fell back to bed, but Jesse jeered and taunted until Angela begrudgingly got up again to chase him down. For their part, Ana and Jesse had been fully prepared, laughing as they sped away on rollerblades Lúcio bought for everybody during the last holiday season.

Angela knew that this was the way that Jesse showed he cared, but that didn't stop it from being a pain in the ass.

Angela wouldn't have been able to catch up to them even in her fittest state. But vengeance coursed through Fareeha's blood and she soon closed the gap between them. Ana lagged slightly behind Jesse, but Fareeha made the extra effort to pump in a few extra strides before making a flying charge at Jesse, tackling him to the ground and pinning him down until Angela could catch up and pull Jesse into a headlock. Ana stopped to cheer and egg on her daughters, apparently having forgotten which side she was on. The fight had to be broken by Aleksandra and Reinhardt, the former carrying Jesse to safety, the latter throwing both women unceremoniously over each shoulder and muttering, "Do the four of you even know how old you are?"

Angela appreciated the way Jesse could liven any room, but she loved those quiet moments when Fareeha would eat breakfast in bed with her. It gave the food a little flavour, as opposed to the ashy taste she had become accustomed to lately.

After breakfast, Reinhardt brought another book he thought Angela might enjoy reading. Angela inspected it, and it was indeed something she once read normally. But as usual, she set it aside on the growing pile next to her bed, sending a discouraged Reinhardt on another quest to find a more interesting novel.

Angela would have gone back to sleep then, but Fareeha popped open the old, worn chess set that they had first played on together, and they set to playing for the rest of the day.

The days continued like this, routine never broken; only expanded on. As Fareeha let Angela do her hair every morning, Angela started to let Fareeha put up her hair into a ponytail. One day Fareeha tuned in to a cooking show during dinner, and that became part of their daily routine too. Bit by bit, Fareeha introduced other small things, like some light exercise and joining the team for movie nights.

Then, on one particular morning, Fareeha shifted Angela's ponytail forward to the top of her head so that it stuck straight up in the air. She stifled a giggle as Angela held up a mirror to see what Fareeha had done to her.

Fareeha leapt to her feet, grabbed Angela's staff that was still stored behind the bed, and tapped each of Angela's shoulders with it.

"I dub thee, Sir Angela "Pineapple" Ziegler", proclaimed Fareeha.

Angela tried to hold a stern face, but a smile cracked through her attempt.

"Get back here, I need my revenge", said Angela, reaching in Fareeha's direction.

Fareeha stuck her tongue out at Angela in response.

A laugh bubbled inside Angela's chest. She grabbed Fareeha around the waist, and used her body weight to throw Fareeha onto the bed. After all the recent bouts of wrestling with an annoying Jesse, Angela had developed a basic understanding of how to pin Fareeha under her. For her part, Fareeha didn't put up much of a fight, or rather, she was laughing too hard to do so.

Angela rolled Fareeha onto her stomach, and sat on her back, bracing some weight on the legs that straddled Fareeha so she wouldn't crush her. In contrast to the firm grip she held Fareeha with, Angela gently took the loose strands of Fareeha's hair and tied them up on top of her head.

"O great Sultan Fareeha Amari, ruler of the Kingdom of Pineapples, mother of coalesced berries everywhere. Tell me of the enemies which I, Sir Angela "Pineapple" Ziegler, Your Majesty's Right Hand, should strike down for the honour of the Pineapple Nation."

While waiting for Fareeha's laughter to subside, Angela reached to the nearby end table and stole Fareeha's phone, snapping as many pictures as she could before Fareeha squirmed away from Angela, wrested the phone back, and retaliated with an equal amount of photos of Angela's ridiculous hair-do.

* * *

Fareeha opened by moving a pawn in the centre of the board two spaces up. The next several moves by both Angela and Fareeha were automatic; they had played chess together so many times at this point that they had come to an unspoken agreement on the opening sequences to use to get to the more interesting middlegame sooner.

As the end of the game approached, Angela could predict far enough ahead in the game to see Fareeha's victory, as usual. She had yet to take a game off of Fareeha, although both women could see that their skill levels were close, and always had been as they improved together. Angela demanded yet another rematch as soon as she saw that there was no way to win. But this time, Fareeha stopped Angela as she reached to reset the board. Instead, she reversed their last five moves.

"Try again", said Fareeha.

And so, Angela did just that, scanning the board for an alternative route to take. She settled on a decision that she had previously thought would be disadvantageous, but after a few minutes, turned out to take her much further than it did before.

But, of course, Fareeha had already considered this path, and managed to keep controlling the pace of the game until the point where Angela realized again that defeat was imminent.

This time Fareeha let Angela forfeit. On their next game, Angela found herself losing for the umpteenth time, but again, Fareeha let her reverse a critical move to try a different strategy. But as always, it was Angela's loss.

A few more iterations of this, and Angela was much more frustrated than usual, having come closer and closer to victory each time, but Fareeha was always one step ahead of her.

Angela took a moment to stand and stretch following another defeat. When she did, she spotted Khalil on the bed above hers, and on a whim, pulled down the plush toy.

"So you don't need her to sleep anymore, huh?" said Angela.

"Not really, no", Fareeha mumbled, blushing slightly.

Fareeha hurriedly reset the chess board, urging Angela to sit back down.

When Angela wouldn't, Fareeha sighed and reached out, waiting for Angela to hand over the falcon plush. Fareeha didn't speak until she held the plush securely in her arms.

"I never really needed specifically Khalil to sleep", said Fareeha. "Anything… or anybody… that's big and soft enough will do. That's why…" Fareeha's blush was more noticeable. "I can sleep without her… as long as I'm next to you."

Angela wanted to smirk so badly. She knew she wouldn't be able to hide it from Fareeha, so she sat down next to Fareeha and leaned against her to partly hide her face.

"That's…" Angela's voice caught on her first word, and she cleared it before continuing. "That's right. When Ana came back and took Khalil, you tried sleeping with Reinhardt."

"It worked too. I was out like a light", said Fareeha.

"But you never take Khalil with you when you go on overnight missions", said Angela. "Do you even sleep when you go?"

"Yeah. I sleep just fine at those times", said Fareeha.

She stared hard at the falcon plush.

"It's stupid, really", said Fareeha. "For someone of my age to be like this… It's hard to explain too. But…"

Fareeha squeezed Khalil tightly. Then, she relaxed and leaned back against Angela.

"I can only sleep alone when I'm in a danger-zone. It's when I'm somewhere safe that I need to sleep with something", continued Fareeha.

Angela placed her hand on Fareeha's lap, palm facing up. Almost by instinct, Fareeha freed one hand to thread her fingers between Angela's.

"I didn't always need Khalil or a body pillow or whatever. I didn't use one at all when I lived in the boarding school in Egypt. But after a while in the military… some things happened. And for a long time I didn't feel safe. I eventually got used to it. _Too_ used to it. I felt like I was in danger all the time. It was fine when I was awake, and I could sleep alright in danger-zones when I was in danger because… well, it makes sense, right? But when I felt like I was in danger and was actually safe… I just… couldn't? Ugh, I must have said danger a hundred times by now. And I'm not making any sense. It's not rational at all…"

"It doesn't matter. Keep going", encouraged Angela.

"Ok. Well." Fareeha squeezed Angela's hand. "It's embarrassing to admit, but I shared a bed with Mama for much longer than most children. At first it was because I was always wide awake before bedtime and I'd sneak away if she weren't holding me down. Then, when she joined Overwatch, it was because there weren't enough beds for me to have my own. Then we kept travelling through cold areas, and I hate the cold, so… _Anyway_. Well, first, thank you for not laughing."

"Mm", replied Angela. Maybe she would have teased Fareeha, if she hadn't already known Fareeha's secret. She was glad that Ana had inadvertently spilled it already.

"So anyway, I tried everything to sleep when I developed my problem, short of actually seeking professional help. Pills, traditional remedies, nothing worked. Until I tried a body pillow – Mama still had Khalil at the time – and it worked like a charm. I guess it's because the memory of sleeping next to Mama was so comforting. I was always safe with her. So it's not really Khalil that lets me sleep, it's the feeling of safety."

"Oh."

Angela lifted Fareeha's hand and brushed her lips against her knuckles.

"I'm glad that sleeping next to me makes you feel safe", said Angela.

"Don't flatter yourself too much!" laughed Fareeha, before sobering shortly. "But yeah." She competed with Angela to take control of their joined hands and pressed a kiss to the underside of Angela's wrist. "I'm glad it's you."

It could have occurred to Angela at this time, to ask the question that had been hanging between them for far too long. A different Angela at a different time would have done just that. But this time she needed to ask something else.

"Do you ever… think about the choices you've made? Do you regret anything you've done?" said Angela.

Fareeha wasn't stupid; she knew what Angela was getting at.

"I try not to", said Fareeha. "Instead, I try to think of all the good that I have done. Yes, force isn't the best way to bring about justice. But there are times when the only way to stop an angry, charging rhino is by killing it. Nobody wants to do it, but sometimes it has to be done. But I did come across some people who did it, not to protect those who couldn't or wouldn't, but because they enjoyed the act of killing. I eventually left the military because finding even one person in a hundred like this was too much, especially when that one person was giving orders."

"So you questioned your orders sometimes?"

"Sometimes. I guess that means I wasn't a good soldier. But in the end I always did as I was told. Helix was a little better because it was so much smaller and at least I haven't seen any signs of corruption."

"If you want complete freedom, why don't you just leave? Be like Jack is right now, something of a vigilante."

Fareeha shook her head.

"The chances of making the wrong choice are too high", said Fareeha. "How can I do something so drastic when it's impossible for me to know all the details? The classic example would be punishing someone for stealing bread to feed their starving family. Acting as part of a group is a good way of getting as much information as possible to make an informed decision. And it's also a good way of keeping each other in check."

"I'm sure it's also a good way to spreading the responsibility", challenged Angela.

"I won't pretend that that's not a benefit. I know how heavy the responsibility of taking a life is. But it's a burden I'm willing to shoulder it if it means I can protect innocent people."

"Oh."

"I'm sorry", said Fareeha, pulling Angela into a hug. "I know that's not what you wanted to hear. You can't directly compare our situations."

"Yeah", said Angela. She pushed aside Khalil so she could be closer to Fareeha.

"Sometimes I think about it. About whether I killed innocent people who I might have wrongly identified as a threat in the heat of things. About not pulling off a clean shot to kill them outright so they have to suffer through a slow death. I do my best not to, but it comes to me sometimes, especially on nights when I don't have Khalil to sleep next to."

"Or me."

"Or you", agreed Fareeha.

She slowly rubbed Angela's back, and Angela buried her face in the crook of Fareeha's neck, soaking in the moment.

After a while, Fareeha gestured at the abandoned chess set and asked for another round.

Angela complied but lost the next few games as usual.

"Why can't you just let me win", whined Angela.

Fareeha looked at Angela pensively.

"Sure", said Fareeha.

"What?" said Angela.

"I'll do it. If it's what you really want."

Angela's eyebrows furrowed together as she considered Fareeha's offer.

"No. Never mind. Forget I said that. I can win on my own."

Fareeha smiled and cast her eyes back down towards the board.

The next time Fareeha opened the game by moving her queen's white pawn up two spaces, Angela was struck by an idea. Or, rather than an idea, a memory.

Angela advanced her pawn as usual, feeling her palms itch, knowing that the success of her plan rested on Fareeha's inability to catch on. Fareeha's eyebrow did twitch a little when Angela broke their routine by moving her bishop up instead of a knight, but Angela relaxed considerably when she managed to move her queen into position and Fareeha moved the wrong piece by habit alone.

The moment Fareeha set down her piece, she froze.

"Did you just…" started Fareeha.

"Checkmate", declared Angela, taking the pawn diagonally from Fareeha's king using her queen.

Perhaps it was because of all the effort she put into holding a poker face for the last few seconds. Maybe it was due to the months of playing chess against Fareeha and losing every time. It was probably both. But all the pent-up energy that nobody knew had been hiding inside Angela exploded.

She started with a maniacal laugh before twirling and pumping her fists in the air. She made quite the scene, and although Fareeha was nonplussed at first, she couldn't help but smile along with Angela.

When Angela finally settled down, the sore feeling of losing for the first time set back in on Fareeha, overpowering her ability to feel happy for Angela.

Fareeha frowned and crossed her arms. "How have I played with you for so long without figuring out this trick?"

"It's called a Shepherd's Mate", said Angela smugly. Fareeha's displeasure prolonged Angela's ecstasy over finally winning.

"Are you ok with that?" said Fareeha, volume suddenly dropping. "Knowing that the only way you can win is through flukes like this?"

"It was no fluke", said Angela, but she was already sobering. "But this is the start of something new. I'm going to start winning for real from now on."

"I look forward to celebrating your real victory with you", said Fareeha. She started resetting the board. "How do you stay so motivated playing chess even though you never win?"

It was such an innocent question, one that was brought up simply for conversational purposes. But Angela was at a loss of words.

"I don't know", she said finally. "But… with chess, it doesn't feel like the outcome really matters."

Fareeha leaned in towards Angela and lowered her voice.

"Well, never give up."

* * *

 **A/N: No, it was not a typo, Ana cheered on BOTH her daughters. Also, please ignore the fact that I forgot that cellphones exist in chapter 13.**


End file.
